The Endless War
by Amateur Experimentalist
Summary: Six years after the World War III, ten years after the nuclear attack on Arab saudi, eleven years after Blatnoi reveal themself and also responsible for the Tokyo bombing. Experimental and not-complete
1. Slight Unawareness

\- - - Slight unawareness

North Carolina, USA

Liberator Sports Bar and Grill

July 4th, 2026, 7.30pm

The place were crowded with visitors (mostly military servicemen from Bragg) indulged with drinks, burgers, hot dogs as well News in the TV. Peoples celebrating the Independence day together with friends either civics or military personnel, the chattering voices filled the whole bar with faint voices of the WNM Newscast on the LED TV, "...demonstrating the P-8A Poseidon at Komatsu Airshow, the anti-submarine warfare aircraft bought by japan is also...". One man though...sat alone in table near the exit with head down, elbows sustained his non-energetic body while holding with his right hand a glass of Scotch trying to fend-off the fear he had, he wearing a wool shirt, cargo pants and sneakers all in black. A man in blue formal air force uniform eating a chicken burger just sit on the other side of the table trying to open conversation, "what's the matter, Commander Bishop?", he, Commander William Bishop, recognize the voice and looked to him showing an expression of worry, "General Crenshaw?...are the intel were true?", he paused for seconds thought both of them won't like it but there it is happening "Yeah. Megiddo were behind the Rebel forces in colombia and...I don't know if its true or not, it's also speculated that Blatnoi were involved in this one too". Bishop blowed breath by this, realize the threat were true, present, clear and nearby, all he can do were nodded and then asked "What are you going to do?", "We'll called for that", he just nodded to the HAWX pilot. "Well, "Ace"...for now...enjoy your drinks. You still got the bottle enough for more six glasses to celebrate what visitors here celebrate"

Downtown Bogota, Colombia

6.17pm

"Okay, on position"

An assassin hired by the rebel were lay down on top of a three story building with a PKS-7 attached SV-98 sniper rifle with silencer aimed at an entrance to the hotel, he could clearly see the lobby and the receptionist desk occupied by two (quite pretty) females from his position. 500 feet above his AO (Area of Operation) were a Russian drone Tu-3 Vulture armed with four Kh-25P missiles and two Rocket pods each containing twenty HE Munitions, its accompanied by another Tu-3 armed with two rockets, two guided bombs and two 30mm Gun pods, both drones had their camera focused on the hotel and its surrounding where it could spotted several agencies SUVs patrolling the streets as well bodies of soldiers and secret services lay down at closed positions with no signs of life thanks to the assassin. "The clown and eight merchants were just out from the zoo, stand by for 30 seconds" it was the informant undercover as a visitor sitting in a bar eating a steak. Less than a half minute later..."have a visual. Standing by until the doors slide open". The assassin who just reported readied his finger on the trigger, he'll to kill the president of Colombia right when the door opened which he'll know that the chance of misses were usually severe if he do so when the president just an inch away from his limo that has its back door opened for him. As the hotel doors start to slide open the assassin pulled the trigger, sending the russian 7.62 bullet right to the forehead of the legitimate president of colombia, his bodyguards surprised by it and getting confused with what's going on. The shooter crawled away backward slowly until he can't see the limo which then he crawled hurriedly into downstairs.

2 minutes later

"Engage the drones"

By that, 15 seconds later...the limo exploded, killing ten secret service agents and panicking everyone in the hotel, followed by one SUV exploded in a street, it was the drone that dropped the guided bombs to the limo and the patrol car. The drones pushed down to altitude 7 feet above buildings level and attacking the scattering SUVs around the hotel which ease the shooters escape.

Manaus, Brazil

July 5th 2026, 9.00am

The morning blue skies blanketed the city of Manaus. Streets filled with cars and peoples streaming the walk paths almost everypart of the city, smells of peace were still retained since the Las trinidad attack at 2021. Just then, an explosion occurred above the Amazon river at altitude 6.000 feet, a SAM struck a light airplane that looked to be a recon drone from unknown origin, with this..."Air patrols this is Radar Emmerald, you were to scrambled in yellow condition, launch immediately".

A flight of four Mirage 2000D take-off from the newly built small base six miles south of Manaus. "Jaguar 2-0 to Scion tower, we're heading 3-6-0 angles 3 to first Waypoint, ETA one minute", "affirmative, proceed your mission". their first waypoint were above the city of Manaus which then proceed to Guyana border, venezuela border and then to colombia-peru border before back to scion, they were armed with six R-550 Magic IR missiles and three fuel tanks.

2.18pm

Skies went grayish blue with clouds at 12.000 feet.

Sooner it will be rainy.

"Emmerald to all 1st Air Defense Group, hostile fighters inbound from...wait, Colombia?"

"What? You can't be serious!"

"Radar doesn't lie, I'll transmit the IFF data to you and see it for yourself. Anyway, where's your current position?"

"This is Quox, we're right above Manaus angles 3"

Manaus, Brazil

Angles 3 (Altitude 3.000 Feet)

Three separate formation of bluish and greenish fighters flown northwest at half Mach, there are three Mirage 2000-5Fs in the frontier of these formations armed with six Magic IR missiles and six MICA Active radar guided missiles plus a central Fuel tank.

The Jaguar squadron leader were callsigned Quox, two of his subordinates were called Fenix and Crow Zero. Not far behind it on the left were five F-5Es and another one on the right close to the Mirages were additional two F-5Es that like the other five armed with ten AIM-9Xs, noticeable upgrade is that its use cockpit of F-20 with medium range radar upgrade. "Ground radar Emerald to Quox...twelve heavily armed Kfirs are escorting five separate Tu-95 Bombers towards the city of manaus, the patrol squadrons were shot down by them so you're allowed to engage, ETA to contact is 30 seconds in current speed", "Copy that, Emerald. Fighters...IFF confirmed hostile, ready your weapons". The Mirages thrust to full but non-afterburner power pacing up to contact the trespassers followed by the F-5s, "Pampa 6, Pampa 7, stay close to me and ready to accept any orders at all times" Quox ordered the two F-5 pilots on his right, which by replied the trailing Pampa 7 "Gotcha".

Another seconds later..."There they are, Quox. The escort planes" Fenix saw three Kfirs a miles ahead of a bomber with another three kfirs a mile behind it, the enemies assuming column pattern formation which oddly aren't effective at all with just twelve fighters, nevertheless though..."Roger, Fenix, Crow Zero. Fire Fox Three on the frontier escort". By that the three Mirages make an opening attack by each launching one MICA missiles to their locked-on Kfir, the missiles traveled for fifteen seconds to the frontier escort planes, all three missiles streak into the Kfirs intake and impact the turbine inside which then entirely destroyed the aircraft. The three Jaguars then break formation and widen the gap from each other, the seven Tiger IIs engage full afterburner after the Bombers, "Pampa team, go after the bombers. All Jaguar planes, provide Long range attack", "Long range attack?", "Well, I admit you got huge guts and experience, but you need to let them gain combat experience as well. We're one force, okay?" Quox reassured Fenix who is happened to be his 2IC (2nd in Command).

The Pampas engage the enemies head on, all of them launch one Sidewinders to whatever they're locked-on, Tiger no. 6 and no. 7 were concentrating on targeting the Bear bombers while the others concentrating on the Kfirs that armed with four Python IR Missiles. No. 6 destroyed the Lead bomber by intentionally launched his Sidewinder right onto the bombers cockpit, the avionics in both the seven F-5s (including the Mirages) and the missiles allowed the shooter to steer the missile manually to the desired direction if certain adjustment were conducted at anytime needed, which prove to be effective as he witnessed his missile penetrate the armored windshield, exploded inside the cockpit as it smashed the door to the cabin and shattered the fuselage onto two parts before he and 7 passed the falling wreckages head on. The rest who handling the Kfirs didn't switch to the same mode to 6 and 7s plane as they would having a hard time steering the missile in the midst of the battle, they using the normal heatseeking mode to let the missile went to its prey even if the shooter don't looked or steered his plane to the intended target, also thanks to its computerized automatic thrust and control system, it also had a good maneuverability and could keep chasing its prey until its run out of fuel (approx. 2 minutes). The mission wrapped fast as the escort chasers takedown the 8th Kfir and Pampa 7 shot down the 2nd bomber at the same time his upper subordinate take out the 3rd using the same tactic he just done, just then "Emerald radar to all fighters be heads up, second wave of enemy fighters inbound from the same vector"

Quox sighed by this "Okay. Fenix, you got what you want. Crow Zero, assist my friend here, got me?", the two mirages who circled at 3 miles northwest from the city limit break away from their flight lead, the two heading to 11 o'clock in Mach 1 to intercept the newcoming enemies, "Radar, what's the count on the enemies?" Crow Zero asked, "You got eight Kfirs with two more Tu-95s", Crow Zero then remembered Fenixes disappointment about to provide long range covers, he then checked his armament list to found two more MICA Active radar missiles with six Magic missiles not yet used before intentionally said "Okay, I'm going for the bombers", he looked to Fenix plane on his left to found same six Magics and three MICAs left at his disposal, the arrogant ace just looked forward waiting for his prey to get within visual range. Crow switch to his MICAs and scanned the airspace ahead which with no time at all he got a lock-on on one Kfir. He switched target two time until he got a Tu-95 locked on, "Here I go, Fox Three!" Crow pressed the trigger which then sent one MICA to travel about 13 seconds to the trailing Bear bombers, Fenix fired Fox Three sequentially twice to the front escorting Kfirs, "Pampa 7 here, Bombers has been decimated as well as the twelve Kfirs. Pampa 6 got three bombers and one Kfir while I got two bombers only".

A seconds later after the comms were one of the incoming bombers got its entire left wing and half of the fuselage ripped apart by a MICA missile, a stray fireball from the missile went to the three escort fighters behind the bombers but all were evaded the fireball, followed by the two Kfirs in the front row tumbled down. Three escorts break formation went after the two Brazilian Mirages leaving the other three guarding the bombers, this tempted Fenix, he always wanted a challenge everytime he went for a mission, he never thinking about share some targets for the others, all he ever think was to shot down as many fighters as he could, an attitude recognized by Quox for very long time. "I'm breaking formation" Crow Zero said before he maneuvered his plane rightside away from Fenix, suddenly Zero got his cockpit blared with tone indicating he's being painted by hostile radar which turns out to be from one Kfir approaching him, he thought it might better to avoid engagement with his pursuer and let his arrogant 2IC handled all fighters despite suddenly he's warned by Quox to engage one who engaged him, he just silent, Quox know what really behind his silence but he just quite and keep this cold atmosphered team work going. "Crow Zero, fire Fox Three!" He fired the last MICA within the Sidewinder firing range, it reach its prey in 3 seconds smashed the bomb bay doors and shattered the Soviet built turboprop bomber to four parts ie. Front section fuselage where cabin connected to the cockpit, rear section where cabin to the rear gunner cockpit is connected and two main wings with each have two Engines still attached to it.

Crow circled around the falling wreckages confirming kills regardless the three remaining bandits scattered after him, just then..an alarm indicating he's locked by hostile missile, he checked his radar to found who tracked him which much to his surprise..."Fenix, what are you doing?", instead get a respond from Fenix he saw four trailing white smokes from his 11 o'clock getting to him and the three remaining Kfirs above Zero, the alarm stop ringing in his cockpit but he can still see the missile still coming to him which forced him to Push the throttle to full AB (Afterburner) straightward (south) avoiding the Magic IR Missile which luckily as he wished it missed him, the three Kfirs though...they're entirely destroyed. Then the warning blared again, still coming from Fenixes radar lock, "Blue on Blue! Repeat, Cease fire, Its your friend here you're after!" Zero yelled to no avail, the alarm still ringed which in this circumstances angered Crow Zero "Fine, you fired your missile again to me..you got your fight!", "That's what I'm after" the only reply Quoxes 2IC give, a cold voiced reply. Skies getting grayish and faint sound of thunder can be heard, when Zero steered his plane left towards his 2IC jets, he got feelings like time getting slowed down since Fenix finally replied his Comms, "Fenix, Crow Zero, Knock it off! Knock it off!" Quox tries to stop the personal fights were no avail at all, "Dammit, Fenix, Zero. I said Knock It Off! That's an Order!" Still no avail, instead Fenix launched his fifth Magic to Crow Zeros aircraft which thankfully for Crow its missed when he pitch up his plane 60 degrees with afterburner lit up. He then rolled his plane 180 degrees rightside, and readied his Magic missile. "Pampa 7 here, we're approaching Fenixs position" Pampa 7 and Pampa 6 and the other five trailed Quox aircraft trying to cease the fight, no. 6 got six Sidewinders left while 7 still had eight, Quox has used five MICAs against the first wave attack with six Magics still unused. "Seems messy up there Quox, I'll dispatch another two Mirages from Scion to Fenix and Crows location just in case" Ground radar Emerald appraised him.

Rain finally fallen lightly

"I'm too good for you to up against, it's never been a fortunate for you at all since we first meet during Las Trinidad attack back then" Fenix said trying to demoralize his (ex) subordinate which to no avail Crow replied playfully "aww...how cute!"

The battle has rapidly intensified between Crow Zero and Fenix with both shooting each other with Guns head on, Quox and the others has near the battle, they could see bullet tracers shoot from nowhere in the skies, yet the clouds spilled the land with rain has appeared at angles 7 which 3 angles above the altitude of the two fighting airmen. As they getting closer to the battle they can see visually Fenix chased Crow Zero that unexpectedly just dead head three miles at high speed, Fenix intentionally fired his last Magic to his flight lead before quickly switch to fired his Guns to Zero, "Break! Break!" Quox yelled to his trailers, he jink left in reflex and luckily missed the missile that unfortunately instead ripped no. 6s rear part of the fuselage, "Pampa 6 is Down!" 7 exclaimed, the engines tumbled out from its place, the plane slowly going down to the jungle of amazon where surely life taking animals filled almost every part of the jungle, 6 ejected from his downed plane when right at angles 3 "we need SAR for Pampa 6 here!" Yelled Crow Zero in the midst of the pursuit, he looked behind and he saw Fenix just take down 7s aircraft as it climbed up 80 degrees trying initially get a better view of what's going on, "Pampa 7 here, I can't control it" he said before ejected away from his plane, Crow banked his plane left to see that the ejected seat almost rammed by the Mirages nose, "Whoa...this is too much for make up dream to be a fearsome fighter pilot" Crow getting more angered by this fighting, Quox know it too so he informed the Junior Ace "Yeah I understand your feeling, but you're not to chase him if it ends up outside Brazil", "Of course, sir" Zero replied the casual confirmation of ally turned hostile. The battle ensuing again, Fenix inverted his plane and pitch it 20 degrees downward and went towards Zero again at full speed head on, Zero pitch up 20 degrees head on levelling around. Both were gaped six miles ready their guns for total ablaze, everyone else including Quox circled three miles south from the clash to see what will happened next, Quox have sent a coded message to the remaining F-5s that if Zero lost they're to shot down Fenix.

Zero climbed 5 feet when he reached miles three thinking like he could give little more percentage of survival from the strike although its totally unsure, two miles were quite quick for what everyone can see from distant but not for the clashing duo, typically the adrenaline were intensely felt in this case evidenced by their feeling of time being slowed down, reaching miles two from three felt take about two minutes even at near top speed, so as the now mile one which seconds later when both have their gun piper appeared in Mirages looking glass both set ablaze their machine guns each other, but not for Zero though. He pressed the trigger for about two seconds and climbed up performing Immelman, two bullets went through the two intakes and damaged the engine of Fenixes Mirage 5000-5F whose has none of every bullets spited to Zero hit him, Zero watched Fenix flee north toward Venezuela at high speed in trailing black smoke, "Crow Zero to Quox, what are we going to do with him?" Asked as the junior member form up to his captain, "Urghh..." Everybody looked to his plane still in good shape but the pilot groaned, Zero know the meaning of that Groan...basically he Groaning in stress with what he just saw, "umm...sir...request permission to RTB" again Zero asked to the point, he wished to go rest after what he had done to his upper (ex) subordinate, he wouldn't mind about being thrown out from the force as long as he could avoid doing it again for 2nd time, but..."My God, n-n-negative. You got eight Flankers inbound from Colombia at Mach 2, angles 5", this surprised everyone still airborne there, "Flankers? VZs Su-30 Flankers?" Quox asked, "No...more worse...Black reddish Su-35S Super Flankers with Red stripes and Red star on each wing", this more shocked the brazilian airmen there, they know what the radar operator referring to.

"Russia" Zero said.

17 miles northwest of Manaus

Like what Radar Emerald has reported, the wing formation of eight planes in reddish black, red stripes and red star emblazoned on each main wings dubbed by many people as 'Super Flanker' approached manaus at twice the speed of sound, all were armed with two R-73Es on each wingtips, six R-74EMs placed in Pylon 2 to 4, the rest four pylons were canted with R-77VV-AEs, the lead Flanker had it's wingtips placed with Jammer tube instead two R-73s.

The Flankers getting closer and closer rapidly to where Quox and the rest eight (two just arrived right when Pampas downed) planes flying circle. "Bogeys closing on Manaus twelve Miles and more closing in rapidly", right after the radar control said that...again Zero report he's tracked by hostile radar, this time so as the other eight planes telling what had happened inside. "All planes descend to above tree level, Move it!" Ordered Quox, then an alert indicating an active radar missile were after them mixed with the alarm indicating they're tracked by hostile radar "All planes, switch off your radar!" Again Quox said to the others, they were already flying above the tree level with their radars deactivated, trailing their Lead plane at high speed towards the direction where the enemy attack them. "Such a Bold move you made, Quox" said a man with distinct Russian accent, "You must be that Blatnoi vatos" said Zero, the lead russian plane were right, the brazilian is attempted to attack them from below which in reflex he readied his R-74 aimed to Quox and fired the missile followed by the other seven fired one on the left wingtip to whatever they're locked-on to, Quox and the other Jaguar Mirages fired their Magic missile before break formation avoiding the R-74s which is no avail for the two Jaguars that coming lately, one Mirage have its left wing hit at high speed and ripped it entirely causing the plane to rolled uncontrollable but still had the occupant jettisoned unlike the other two that hit right below the canopy which killed the occupant and obliterate partial of the jet.

None of the missile fired back to the russian planes hit its prey, the green/blue western fighter jets and the reddish black russian jets sprawled the skies above the Negro river with one suddenly and easily F-5 tumbled, this doesn't feared Crow Zero though, he went after any Flankers close to him which suddenly passed him fast from behind at angles 4 which 1 angle above him. He readied his Magic in Normal heatseeking mode and fired it, the french made IR Missile went like a blitz towards its prey that climbed up and deployed the flares which to no avail the missile hit the rear sting of the Flanker which housed the Rear-looking Radar, two Adders tumbled away from the plane which nearly hit the shooters wings, the pilot take the damaged plane to fled northward. Zero doesn't have anytime to celebrate, he then concentrate on looking onto another hostile nearby which without he knowing it...the Flanker with Jamming tubes is right behind him fired the Vympel R-74 to Zero who in reflex pitch down and dropped the centerline fuel tank which miraculously and accidentally struck the incoming missile four inches away behind, he found out when he turned his plane right hard that his plane heavily damaged by the shrapnel from the explosion evidenced by the engine releasing a black smoke trail, more worse is that he saw the remaining four missiles were gone, however he could still fired his gun although almost impossible against these Flankers.

The Flanker with Jamming tubes still chased him everywhere he go, he make a sudden hard left and it still behind him start to firing it's 30mm gun, fortunately from nowhere..."Zero, Hang in there!" Quox tailed and fired the gun to Zeros pursuer, the russian banked still following Crow Zero maneuvering rightside trying make a horizontal loop, the flanker leveled idle for some seconds until suddenly it pulled Cobra maneuver by lift up the nose at low speed and try keep it pointed upward until the intended time while still flown forward, this forced the Super-agile Super-fighter to slowed down and lifted up some feet. Quox overshot his target which then it leveled back turning the table, it then fired its R-74EM intended for Quox which it hits the left Delta wing and tumbled the french made fighter uncontrollable, Quox managed to eject right at angles 2 which 3 seconds later the chute come out from the seat and let the occupant descent into the jungle in the midst of air battle.

Before Crow had a chance to close in to one who shot down his flight lead, it make a sharp 90 degrees right turn upward towards Colombia, it climbed to Angles 7 followed by the remaining six Flankers forming a wing formation and fled at approximately Mach 1, Crow zero was unbelievable to him the only survivor of the battle but fortunately when he head southeast towards base he saw three CH-47 Chinook helicopters escorted by four MH-6 Little birds with Rockets and Mini-guns to pick up the downed airmen in the jungle, "Jaguar 3, return to Base for debriefing" Radar Emerald told him which he comply, he thrust his black smoke trailed Mirage to full non-afterburner power output, most of the electronics were inoperable due to combat damage but fortunately not for the looking glass, it still show the compass topside of the glass in alphabet format, "Radar, where's my 20 with the city?", "Maintain your current course, you're heading directly towards the base. ETA three minutes", Three minutes by that felt like a half hour for him, he concerned about his heavily damaged aircraft worried of being downed in the midst of rain poured perilous jungle below.

Scion Air Base, 20 miles south of Manaus

3.56pm

Rain intensified to moderate

Heavy breathing constantly comes up.

"Jaguar 3, you're cleared for emergency landing. Emergency Response Team, stand by"

The smoke trailed mirage approached from northwest at very slow speed, "Jaguar 3, can you closing in faster?" The controler asked, "Negative, I'm worried about the engines...it pretty hot here inside which I'm sure coming from the engine and electronics"

Two firetrucks and one ambulance readied on first taxiway to the Runway 31 (south), other two firetrucks also on standby on the edge of Runway 15 (north) where Zero would land. A minute passed, the smoke trailed plane getting lower in altitude with its landing gear extended as it a half mile from the airstrip, it managed to landed smoothly on the wet runway, the firetrucks tailed the plane ready with its sprayer aimed to the fuselage that suddenly spited small fires on its wings, immediately sprayed by the fireteams for a minute until the fire is gone. The plane were dead stopped and the team from the R15 approached at high speed for the pilot whose get out of the aircraft himself, the ambulance has come to him with crews set the stretcher for him, "Sir, lay down here" one man urged him which he decline, but the man urged him again when he with the name 'Lt. Diego Rojas' written on the back of his helmet tumbled to knee on the ground which he then comply, he laid on the stretcher and taken to the ambulance where his helmet and mask taken off from him.

"Romeo? Hey, Romeo..wake up, stay with me"

Sao Paulo General Hospital

Room 12

July 7th, 7.12pm

the man had totally awoken after two days passed out, due to the ejection seat so early shoot off its parachute plus the effect of the venomous animal bites to his ankle that fortunately been cured properly. On the edge of the bed were a paper card written 'Arman Romeo', 'DOB : 3-28-1998', "How you doing, Major?" Someone on his right asked, it was Diego 'Crow Zero' Rojas, "Ugh...I'm okay, Rojas. It just...I went faint...how long?", "Well...today is July 7th, now you're in Sao paulo general hospital", Romeo confused, he would thought of in either the base infirmary or Manaus hospital "Why?" He asked, "Hfff...we got a coup on both colombia and venezuela, those russians we face against two days ago were..yes, Blatnoi. Russian reference for...Labors if I'm not wrong. Manaus were now under the coup control including the scion base". "From now on, you're to rest here until you're totally recovered" said the female defense ministry of brazil Sofia Angel entering the room with two secret services guarding outside, "Madame.." The two pilot salute to her, "At ease you two, this is urgent. You're ready for go, Lieutenant Rojas?", "I always do, madam", "Then come" to that he comply "Sorry, Major", his flight leader just nod to him and said "Get back to me so I can kill you myself", Diego just chuckled by that, they both exchange smiles until Rojas disappeared from the room. Romeo wouldn't know what he would up to until he got fully A-OK, all he could do now was to rest.


	2. Clandestine Tiger

Camp Mobile, Alabama

August 5th, 2026 6.25pm

"The body of the kidnapped american reporter Hommel Magentire were discovered on the Korean border this morning by the patrolling north korean soldiers, they claim that they had nothing to do to the death of Hommel, the comm..."

Soldiers watching the news in their barracks were shocked by this, their very countryman died in the korean peninsula, "screw them, DPRK Bitch!" One of them nearly shouted. Back on the TV were the high ranking officers of north and south korean armed forces giving statement behind his death, the NKA willing to help US and her allies solve this problem regardless the diplomatic circumstances with other countries, "Aahhh...I got a feeling this turn to be worsen sooner"

Ft. Campbell, Kentucky

8th, 2026, 9.32am

"We're now reporting at the city of Haeju, though sits in DPRK the atmosphere here is not as stern as you might think, here we have the leader of the 3rd Platoon Lieutenant Colonel Kang Ho-Joo whose now in charge of units hunting for the prosecutor of the OBC reporter Hommel Magentire. Lieute..."

The two person distracted by the shouting behind them, "Incoming!" The soldier behind them shouted english, the two man looked above and the TV went blank.

"Oh my God! What the Hell?!"

Another shocking news costing another live of a reporter, this time right before their eyes on WNM World News, the green berets were all awed by the sudden blank, barracks became noisy by that until the show returned to the news reader back in the states again, the room were silent from the soldiers listening to the next topic still regarding the happenings in the Korean peninsula.

Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Naval Air Station Atsugi

August 17th, 2026, 11.19am

Main bulding, Briefing room..

The room were filled with US servicemen all on alert about North korea, all of them were chatting about another Coup D'etat inside Pyongyang that killed the legitimate Leader of North korea, worse...including his family, high-ranked generals, even many innocent civilians sympathized to the legitimate leader and the news spreaded worldwide, meaning sooner or later other countries sided to south korea would get involved. Some military servicemen at Atsugi were talking about the incidents at korea and colombia, "They had ties, right?", "What about russia behind these?", and lots more they relate with.

Meanwhile still in the briefing room there is a young girl have a japanese looking instead american wearing Urban UCP Army trouser, black Adidas track jacket with white lines and a pair of tactical black Oakley combat Boots, she were having a meal with a Cup noodle. Already people thought her to be an Army FET (Female Engagement Team), beside her was a man in complete ACUPAT whose now reading a romance novel, these guys were stranger to the staff there, sure they don't mind an army or air force at their turf or whatever it was, its just such a rare occassion for army to end up at the base of navy, who they were?, they would never know who they were. They wouldn't except for so far two men in plain clothes looked to them as they come in the room, they knowing who was the couple were but decided to keep it unknown to others, they know the two army soldiers were part of special forces that were publically disbanded, in reality, they weren't, and never, the two plain clothes recognize them as the 'Ghosts', not one of the Joint Strike Force combination of multiple units from various branches, but the army one designated by DoD as the GST, Group for Specialized Tactics. These couple were waiting for the Navy transport C-2 Greyhound scheduled to take them to the USS Patricia Caldwell sailed at okinawa seas.

In the control tower the operators spotted a green dot in their scanner coming from east with IFF top right of the dot 'C-2A Greyhound 11', it was the plane that would take the two rangers to the USS Patricia Caldwell "This is Atsugi tower to Greyhound 1, perform landing checks...you're cleared to land" the female operator contacted the aircraft.

"Hmm..." The novel reading Army man leaned to the window hearing something, "what is it, freddie?" Ask the young girl who just finished her meal, "I heard something, Cee, like a propelled air plane..." He reply, she just smile smirk "well...finally we went away from these stink sailors" she wishpered herself, like James Ellison (30k) she is heavily disliked sailors, "well...pack up, let's go to the hangar we briefed yesterday" she said, she put the empty noodle cup under the seat freddie sitted before she raise and followed him outside.

"Hey! I thought we have a deal to drop our formalities outside the field!" She patted him, kind of kiddy attitude that to most people witnessed now, "Oh oops! I forgot. Come on, you think like its been a week or two to comfortly call by your name?", "Hey! We're together enlisted in the same day and same rating, I'm not talk about ranks or that things. For now on you should enough call me 'Matilda', Matilda Li, That's ME! Don't wanted to called Ma'am, Cee, Ghos...", "What about Ri-Chan?" He smirked to her teasing her facial feature, "Keith! You're Rude!" She hit his shoulder, freddie chuckled with what he just called her. Their C-2 were parked in front of the hangar they're walk after with Scott Mitchell who just ranked up to Lieutenant General in tan army shirt and blue jeans dismounting the aircraft and meet them, "Well well well. Staff Sergeant Li and Master Sergeant Freddie...you people ready for this one?" He ask, "rangers happy to lead the way, sir!" Matilda cheered childlish before the two ghosts salute him, "okay okay okay, get aboard...have a nice flight and need to know...Commander Derrick parker will be your commander once you're landed on the ship" the general said, now he leave. "Let's go" freddie walks onto the plane followed by her.

4 miles of the Naha coast

USS Patricia Caldwell (Gerald R Ford Class)

1.16pm Local Time

Staff Sergeant Matilda Li and Master Sergeant Freddie Keating dismount from the Greyhound with Commander Derrick Parker wait them near the island entrance, Parker briefed them while taking them to their accommodation "Obviously you two know ten days ago, North korea again staging a coup, they've killed the legitimate primer and everyone who loyal to him as well as some innocent pyongyangs sympathized to him. Then two days later they launch an attack on Munsan through kaesong that claimed millions of loyal North korean, South korean and US servicemen", "Wow this is civil war! This still related to the death of two WNM and OBC reporters?" Freddie ask "No idea about them, but now the only clear thing is again they attempt to grab Seoul to their hands...you know!", "What are we going to do in the mean time?" She asked, "In the mean time?". They reach their room where they supposed to stay, the same room where Hunter team comprised of the newly-promoted quartet Maj. Cedric Ferguson, the duo 1st Lt. John Dimitri Kozak, Robert 'Pepper' Bonifacio and Staff Sgt. James Ellison stayed. "I want you two..went to the Command Center in Stealth Operation gearing reporting for duty at 2100, alright?", "Okay, sir!" Freddie says before parker leave.

Sea of Japan

9.00pm Local Time

"Commander..." Li now added with Urban Digital Camo SPCS (Soldier Plate Carrier System) greet him followed by freddie behind her with same vest and PASGT Helmet, both geared up for covert Night Op. with herself armed with the suppressed SCAR-L added with the 552 HWS (Holographic Weapon Sight) and Freddie armed with Honey Badger AR-15 attached with Comp M2 and Target designator for Airstrike "Good, you're going in to the Camp 22, they set up some new camps in the area, full loaded with more troops and activities, we want to know what they're up to, so you go in, ask some intels and get out. Satellite shots reveal a complex running securities for your target building next to it, Cameras and alarms were fiddle there, so its a good thing that you put the designator to your weapon, keith. The security camp were marked to your AR and MRT, designate it with that and Whiteman would happily drop the christmas presents to them. You'll be inserted separately via C-2 escorted by three EA-18Gs and an F-22A to each LZ plus additional support from the Japanese E-767 jamming North korean radars all over the country. Radio contact will be terminated when you entered North Korea with intel report of moderate to high patrols in and around your LZ..so exercise very extreme caution", "and our extraction?" she ask, "well...you're gonna have to travel on foot to China for this. Beijing were contacted for this, they would ready to pick you up and take you to Macau for unsuspicious extraction, but you must try not to get caught by the korean patrols when you about to crossing the lines, if the NKA sees you getting out to China, we're talking second pacific war with china and north korea. That's it for now..you gonna take off at 2235...good luck"

2 Miles east from the coast of Songjin, North Korea

11.14pm

The skies were almost total dark, a favoured skies for the ghosts "Greyhound 2, this is Kitsune, your blips has been registered in our system...how copy?" Contacted a woman whose one of the E-767's radar operator circling between the Asahikawa and Abashiri, Hokkaido at 37.000 feet, "This is Greyhound 2, good copy, ma'am!" Replied the ghosts transport flying at it's height limit of 33.500 feet, it's escorted by one HAWXs F-22A internally armed with four JDAMs and two MIRV modified AIM-132 ASRAAM (each smaller warheads can critically damaging up to six aircrafts) while the three Block IV EA-18Gs (based on AC3 F/A-18I) from VAQ-128 (128th Tactical Electronic Warfare Sq.) spread around the C-2 10 meters, the Growlers loadout were three AN/ALQ-99 Jamming Pods (one high-band pod under it's fuselage and two low-band pods on each wings), four JDAMs and four AIM-120X ALRAAM (MBDA Meteor). "This is Katamari, we're 11 minutes ETA from the Drop Zone 1...sitrep done!" The female lead Growler pilot reporting, her EWO (EW Officer) with word Damacy decorated on the unique lime green JHMCS helmet working non-stop on jamming radars around them, "I got radar contact on one North korean Air base 4 miles ahead...keep calm and stay frosty, fellas" the female EWO report, "Greyhound 2 good copy, ma'am". After reports given, the comms went silent, the only thing that wasn't remain silent were the planes engine roar.

ETA to LZ-1 : 60 Seconds

The hatch of the Greyhound already opened "Freddie...you jump first. You don't mind, right?" Matilda ask, "I'm so excited" he replied playful, both were done checking out the map and readied their balaclava then their mask, freddie has the buttstock of his integrally suppressed PDW collapsed and prepped, she fold her SCAR-Ls buttstock as the ETA to her LZ were two minutes and safe inside the woods (whilst freddie's LZ were in the open between the woods and a hills). "Half-minute before LZ-1, prepare for Drop" the Greyhound pilot comms in, freddie were already near the hatch ready to jump out, below he saw through his FLIR Rangefinder (Forward-Looking Infra Red) a vast forests on his left and the hill on his right with rather small activity "fifteen seconds before LZ-1, stand by until green light", she patted him saying good luck and went back, a moments later they heard a clank from the light that went green, a time for him to jump out of the aircraft onto the LZ that empty of activity.

"Charlie 1-1, Bravo 2, I'm in position", "This is 1-1, Proceed to the overwatch position. Maintain radio silence and remember that we have no Cloaking capability". "Yep" reply Keating. He duck little bit at an open tall grass field and moving towards the valley, balancing low observation stance and mobility. He routing towards the woods as he reach the valley rendering the north korean 3rd patrol group at the field unaware of his presence, he must try not to open fire onto anyone though armed with suppressed weapons, too early to add a dead body and means too early for the alarm to be blared around.

He encounter the first soldier inside the woods, it's the radioman warming himself with firewoods set up there, .."Theta 1 to Theta 7, what's the situation report?", he replied..."This is 7, Everything is Clean. I have a visitor, confirm?", "Yes, Hades 3 and 8 will approach your position to Accompany you there. You should meet them in less than eight minutes", "alright, I'm currently setting up the firewood in my position so make sure they look for the fire", "will do". Freddie know that killing the radioman will alerting all places his presence so he went a bit deeper into the woods avoiding shootout with the north korean. He successfully pass the radioman, he then stop at the nearby rocks to observe the open field in the middle of the valley and his surrounding area. He check again with his AR (Augmented Reality) making sure that the area he observe is checked of the enemies, and he found three patrols from the 3rd Patrol Group with none of them a Radioman. He checked via AR and proceed in low stance to avoid being spotted by the patrols while he keeping distance of twenty yards on one of the patrol. Suddenly one of the patrols stop and open up a conversation "Hey, I'm hungry. And if not wrong...the mercenary will arrive here, right?", the other patrolmen stops and looking each other "Right, they'll be here at...(Looking into his watches) two minutes. So let's go back to the camp", "Yes". Fortunately, none of them stare back.

The patrolmen walking again to the camp, he followed them for about five minutes until he saw the security control camp while pointing his AR-15 to them in case they saw him and needed to be taken out. He stray away silently from the patrolmen and look up to the sky on the southeast and scan for a lone B-2A. He saw a small line in the sky and scan it with his AR, it is a B-2A flying around 14.500 feet and just two-half miles away from his target. He point his gun to the security camp until the bomber pass above him, a large explosion occurs at the camp as the bomber pass above him. He hear no alarms and look after the patrolmen shocked with the explosion and his surroundings, he jogged to the main camp entrance and stay away from the patrolmen that running towards the explosion, thus avoiding a firefight. "Charlie 1-1, this is Bravo 2. I'm near the target entry, where's your 20?" "This is 1-1, I'm just out from the woods northeast of the target so don't wait for me. Out". He proceed inside the camp. As he inside, he saw two guards running inside one of two barracks so he hide behind strangely a US built HUMVEE on his right to scout the barracks. The guards that going inside were calling for reinforcement to get to the Security Camp. "We need additional units to the security camp, Now!".

He don't know where the reinforcement came from, he think that the enemy backup coming from the Command Center. "I can't just wait here until they showed up". To his left about three meters were stack of Crates behind the barrack the soldier isn't enter, high enough to even jump behind it, but flammable enough to shattered him. Hurriedly running towards the crates, and made it just in time the enemy reinforcement coming out from what looks like to be a Command Center ahead. He take a peek of the enemy units in the dark and he count twelve olive balaclava men in blue tracking suits with HK416 going onto the destroyed camp while six north korean guards with Saiga 12 Shotgun guarding the Center. "Bravo 2, Sitrep. I'm inside the target", "This is Bravo 2, I got twelve tangos heading away. Current area were guarded by six patrols riding shotgun", "Understood Bravo 2, hold your position and observe the Command Centers windows for hostile. Do not fire on your own, we'll take them out simultaneously", "okay". Freddie stare at the buildings windows, he saw only one guard inside but the windows were bulletproof, he report it to her and wait until she's on the position. "I'm inside an AAV parked leftside of the target building, take out three guards nearest to you in 3...2...1...Move! Move! Move!", simultaneously Freddie and Li assault the six guards, take all of them out without being fired back and rushes to the entrance. "You ready?", he nodded by that. The door is not locked.

"Okay...Now"

She kick open the door and raid silently into a short hallway led to the armory, they checked two empty rooms in the hallway before entering the armory where Freddie whose right ahead Li then shot a lone guard that about to take an M203 Grenade Launcher. He picked that GL as well as all grenades for his female subordinate, they continued to press onto an empty briefing room where they saw a whiteboard with maps of different locations. Li take a photo of the maps and recover two envelopes hanged on the notice board rightside of the board, "2, proceed to that right room (offices) I'll go to the left (war room). Cleared to engage all hostiles, if you have a shot on our HVT, take it at all costs...good luck"

He enter the hallway silently onto the office room on the leftside end of the hallway where it's empty of hostiles, there's a door at the other side that closed which freddie decided to plant Claymores on the door he entered and the closed one, he resort to recovering intelligences in the offices computers and cabinets which would takes around five minutes. Matilda killed three guards inside the war room, they were armed with AKMs and again a Saiga 12, nothing interesting, she lob a Flashbang into the next room, peoples inside were shouting in korean to take cover but too late, the grenade exploded, blinding and deafening anybody inside temporarily, there she shoot her P226 sidearm to the three guards with G3A3 rifle, the deafening effect were affected her as well but she still can hear other things clearly unlike the trio she put down, inside were security room with twelve monitors and keyboard organizing the security features inside, she fiddle the keyboard and shut down the alarm system, nobody knows what will happened next.

Freddie just finish recovering the last three intel in the computer and shut it down, then continue search all five cabinets for any intelligence he could find, he recovered only three folders but one folder contained a banking record of an NKA general that has it's name blanked with a marker and a phone inside the folder which he then boot it, before the booting process were finished however..."This is 1-1, I've secured the compounds security room...you got four tangos with G36C inbound from the computer storage to your position..brace yourself!". Freddie keep the phone in his vest and stand still bracing for the enemy breaching into the office, the closed door were exploded and flown to a wall which then Freddie pressed onto the next hallway lead to the computer storage room. In the hallway he take out two stunned hostiles and take one G36 as well as four Mags., "2, I've shut down the buildings security system, no alarms or cameras to worry about. Press on!". In the storage room, freddie encountered another four NKAs armed with AK-12 giving him a tough fight but he eventually defeated them with sacrificing a half Mag of his G36 by aiming strafe to the upper part body, hitting chest and head. There he saw two rooms, one we're a small room containing empty cabinets intended for harddisks and the other one is a hallway to a stairway lead to the underground complex, an unknown world as they say. "This is 2, I've encountered an entrance to the underground complex...be advised that comms maybe offline when I'm inside the area, requesting sitrep..over!", "Same here...I'm just about to tell you so. Well then good luck, 11 out"

Entering the underground complex...

Both were reached the underground complex at different locations, yet both ghosts can't communicate each other. Freddie goes onto what looks like to be a cave that under construction, there are three forklifts that provide a decent cover in case he encountered a firefight. He stayed in the cover and scan the area ahead with his Augmented Reality, there he detect three hostiles chatting something blocking his way to the tunnel that lead to the lower level, "Man! I entered military expect some actions not some tours in this...crappy ugly caves. I mean, come on...I here to be a soldier, not a miner!", "and these mercenaries...they're really arrogant, I hate them!", Mercenaries? Whose these mercenaries Freddie thought.

Regardless, he readied his Honey Badger to take out the guards swiftly...before he aimed it to the guards though...he checked the mag and found that there is 12 rounds left in the mag, he put it back into its place that switched to 3 shot-burst mode and aimed the three guards head. Before he take a deep breath the guards were get shot and killed from the tunnel at their left. He stand still and wait for anyone whose coming from the tunnel, it turns out Matilda that killed the guards. "Uu...hello!" he greet her from his cover, she stared shock to him "urghh...you shocked me. You okay?", "I'm just about to kill them, I'm superb! Let's go stroll this place", "this is a creepy place" she look onto the tunnel ahead as they explore the tunnel system unhastily, just a walk like in the park, only its onto the unknown, "I'm glad they do something to this place that allow us to breath", "yeah but it's too cold for me!" they go more deeper underground for a minute until they reached what looks like to be a salt mine. "Salt mine!" Freddie remarked before they walk onto the only path on their left and hide in the forklift, enemy presences is confirmed at moderate numbers.

Freddie observed the area for hostiles while Li overwatch the path leading to the mining site as well as search for a path lead to the next area, he report eight mercs in beige pants and jacket armed with G36C, two of them looking onto a papers on a table placed far ahead across the mining area which right after them were a tunnel to the next area. "Cover me, I'll take a closer look onto the papers over there" she asked whispering through the comm, but another two mercs walk up to their position spotted the two ghosts, one of those mercs fired the ghosts with M320 fitted onto the G36 but the ghosts jumped away from the forklift that exploded and just suffering a heat from the explosion.

She fired the M203 onto the mercs spotted them, the grenade hit the one who fired the M320 in the stomach and both mercs were disapeared in the explosion except their helmet, the ghosts now encountered a firefight with the mercs that speak english in typical american dialect "Get the Boss out of here, now!". "Drop that executives, we need to recover that intel!" She told him while she fired her M203 onto hostiles in the center of the mining site, Freddie fired his G36C onto the executives attempted to flee into the tunnel with two briefcases which by the time he checked the brifcases that clean of dirty bombs the fighting is over and Li checked the table for an intel lefted, she found and thrown a smartphone onto one dying mercs in the mine trying to get his weapon whose also disapeared in the explosion from the smartphone she disposed. "A dirty bomb, huh?" Freddie surprised calm, "these guys are either very good or too good for us" she replied "anyway..we'll need to check the briefcase later, we gotta find out where the "Gemini" is so we can present him with Fifth freedom", they attached the briefcases on their back and began to enter the dark tunnel.

They reached a spot for a railway cart stop by to deliver cargos but no cart present, "let's surprise them from above, there's a place above us high enough to conceal from them as well" she said, luckly she also found a way to climb up there, they climbed slowly making sure that the rocks wouldn't slipped them. There is no tunnel or path on where they waited now so there is nothing to worry about except the hostiles they'll encounter as well as the carts they would use, if they losing them might means losing valuable loots, which is intels, or getting to the other locations ahead would be longer and more longer. After two minutes waiting the cart they waited for were arrived with another four Mercs and two north korean special forces all armed with P90TR, the ghosts overhearing a conversations before ambushing the hostiles "let's check the mining area, you two stay here in alert" one merc said to his forces, she fired her M203 near the cart and killed two mercs and two Spec ops "Take 'em out, fred!" Matilda commanded Freddie whose then fired his G36 killing the mercs attempted to flee. He climb down and check the carts under and inside, "cleared!" He give a thumb up to her whose then climb down to regroup with him "Fred, you drive the train and I cover you!"

"LOS (Loss of Signal) with the recon team, sir. Last transmission is they're going to the underground complex"

"They really about to chew more than they could..." Derrick commented. Big screen in the ComCent of Caldwell shows the map of north korea zoomed to Hoeryong particularly to the Camp 22, shows nothing but unchangged two villages and three guard posts. In the ComCent were not Derrick alone with staffs, but also the captain of the USS Caldwell Admiral Thomas Andersen, six MARPAT SOC Marine expeditionary cells and four Hunters have their Crye Navy AOR2 patched with the classic and famous Airborne logo, "I've heard a rumor of them going to turn Camp 22 into a military base, if true it means they gonna slaughter the villagers inside" the admiral added, its possible for what he said became true considering crazy things going on in Pyongyang, "That commander is why I call you here", 30...although dislike sailors, he of course now must takedown his temperament around the two high officers, "Chill!" Pepper whispered, "You relax!" 30 chuckled him. Both the Admiral and the Commander noticed their whisper, even though they're special operators trained to integrate with other units for maximum effect, the competency between the Army, Marines and Navy were still intense like in the old days, thankfully 30 didn't encounter such person yet. Blips occured, the screen shows movement of troops to a village in Camp 22, blips of infantry transported by APCs moving from one of the outpost to the nearby village..

The two ghosts reached a cave completely natural and empty of human activity or even a light, they saw in NV mode a path on their right whilst their left were a deep and steep junction lead to nowhere, "that's the tunnel accross this junction..." Matilda saw a small and dark tunnel ahead of them that only accessible through a passageway far right from their position, "god! You know, 2? I hate bats!", "Don't worry, they're somewhere off here feeding...for now at least", "What about if the're back here?", "Well...what about if the bats were fruits eating one?" He ended as he scan the surroundings, Freddie's scan results shows it's clean of ambushes or booby traps thus they continue to explore the cave under a total darkness, she watch the surroundings in IR mode checking for ambushes, or other heat emitting objects that might be an IED.

Eventually they reached the tunnel lead to a high and narrow hallway that only have one light bulb ahead of them, freddie checked the area with EMF while Li with IR, their scanners shows no sightings of any person or equipment ahead but a light bulb that Fred decided to destroy it with his weapon. However, before he had a chance to even take aim..."Freddie, topside ahead of us...sniper coming in!" Li warn quitely, they rush back to the tunnel for cover in a darkness. Through her binocular it confirm that the sniper has no NOD (Night Optical Device) except a Thermal scope attached to the suppressed SVD, swiftly and carefully she get closer to the lighted spot and takedown the sniper with one shot SCAR-L to his head which also luckly the corpse dropped on where he stand but the SVD fall right onto a straw in a cart next to the small tunnel ahead, "Damn, that was perfect" the girl muttered happy.

She grab the SVD in the cart and check the condition of both scope and Suppressor that all in a good condition and together they proceed onto another dark tunnel, they ended up in an electronic sliding door that has a Keypad on the right of the door which Matilda able to hack the code and granted access to the next area which is a hallway lead to a room labeled "Bio-weapon component storage", they encountered two unaware guards wearing a gas mask exiting from the room on the right before the storage they're headed which then taken out with Freddie's Honey Badger before they opened the storage door. Both take the mask and take the bodies into the room they exited from and put the bodies behind the locker and stack carboard boxes to cover the bodies, they don't exit the locker room yet..."It might be a good idea to look after a vent for infiltration", "I'll look onto the other room" Freddie look onto a second locker room, but he report that he doesn't find any as well "alright...let's just press into the storage room" she relent and went in together cautiously. Fortunately they didn't encounter any people inside and fortunately too they found a vent they were looking after at the otherside of the storage, Freddie followed her onto it after he photograph the whole room and its stored materials, "please mind your eyes on my asset, okay!", "ahaha..you're funny!" Freddie replied. They crawled for five minutes until they reached the vent exit at the place they didn't expect to be.

"ARE we really inside an ICBM silo?" She shocked seeing a near-active ICBM silo with many North korean weapon scientists criss-crossed the facility prepping for maintainance of a Taepodong missile.

Freddie tapped her shoulder and say about a lab on the right side of the facility "how'd we get inside? That place is bustling like Tampa" she ask, their current position were lightless and covered by two containers thus they're not detectable except when they left the cover as the surrounding area were lit up, "Hey...that guys..." Freddie saw two scientist with a white suitcase near a sliding door next to the vent talking about a cloacking devices.

"...so you just stick the chip onto your suit and it cloack everything you wear and touch, but it will be deactivated when you move too fast, firing a gun, or when a non-cloacking person touches your suit. Make sure the Recon forces know this too" a scientist talk in korean and give his suitcase to a major whose then take the suitcases headed to the lab, "I'm going to interogate that major!" He going silently to intercept the north korean major, "I'm getting the scientist then, we'll pressured them right here again" she too going after scientist. They captured them by grab their mouth and holding a knive on their throat which then they brought them near the vent they exited from and interrogate separately, she ask about any intel regarding the newly built complex within the Camp 22 while her mate interrogate any Intel about the mercenaries, some intels Freddie ask are only attainable by asking the scientist that turns out to be a General named So Ji-Eun whose have a 2007 transaction record in MCAS (Mercantil Costa Afuerda Securidad) Panamanian Bank recovered by Freddie when he were in the Office room before entering the underground complex, as well as a proof Gen. Ji-Eun also started a contract with the Displace International during the Korean war outbreak in the same year.

Freddie shot their head and hid them in the vent with the suitcases emptied. "Well...let see it, Freddie!" They activate the cloaking device and they're completely invisible than the previously used by the Hunter team (Ghost Recon : Future Soldier). "Okay, I like it. Fred, go to the left look after any of the merc guy..I'll try and see to gather intels about this silo as well as a map of this place for extraction".

Freddie entering a Locker room where he encountered six mercs chatting about a raise, he proceed into the hallway lead directly to the briefing room where there are two NKA officers looking onto a presentation, but as he about to enter the briefing room, suddenly he hear a merc change topic about their boss whose also an NKA military officer "...Yeah, Thompson...we gonna go to Sapporo, not sure what he's up to", "oh...he told me too to meet him when we had a time at his office, he wanted to talk about our next assignment there. Arm up and let's meet him, might we'll go on right after we meet him".

He followed them through the briefing room and to another hallway where there are four office room along the way and one room at the end of it. As the mercs knock the door..."Alright, come in here!" Replied a man in distinct british accent, one of them opened the door and enter the office for briefing while Freddie waiting outside overhearing the conversation with the old european man aged around 56 in black Tuxedo Identified 'Gemini' in his AR..."What's our job, boss?", "You will attack a hotel at sapporo, your target is a Defense secretary of South korea and the US Pacific Command. Your intel will be sent to your wireless device as soon as you're in japan, let's wreck a havoc, boys!", "alright..what's the duration of our job?", "you got two weeks for this mission, that's include the planning and travel to the target area, take a good little time to plan out here so you can plan further when you're there...alright, good luck gents!", "yes, boss".

Freddie flatten to the wall letting the Mercs passed him without touching him, he then entered the office strafe right to the dark corner of the room and wait for 10 seconds before he shot the generals head with his Honey Badger which deactivated his cloaking device and showed in his AR two words : 'Objective Complete'. He immediately close and lock the door so he can safely regenerate his stealth camo as well accessing the computer for intelligence. He were stunned with only an App that he recovered, the App that can automatically generate mission objectives according to the intel and mail each or some tasks to every individual involved. As he doesn't found any cabinets or folders, he hide the body in a wardrobe and set a C4 for in case before went off from the room.

He goes back to the armory through the empty briefing room, he reach the lockers where the six mercs get a beep from their Smartphone.."Boss is attacked?", freddie get inside to put the 10 seconds setting C4 above one of the two lockers and went back to lock the door. Seconds later he heard a suppressed boom from the armory, immediately he went away from the armory and look after an alternate way back to the launch pad through the left hallway in the briefing room. "Charlie 1-1 to Bravo 2, I found the way out of here with half bucket load of intel about the silo. RV in where we got the stuff, I'll lead you out. Mission is complete".

He traverse the long hallway that ended up in the launch pad where the invisible Girl were waiting, just as he reunited with her..."We got an explosion..Sound the alarm! Sound the Alarm!" The alarm were sounded and the whole facility were alerted, they didn't know what happened inside and how were there an explosion, "Oh damn...we'll extract through that hatch. There is a ladder on the empty room 13th Floor above, follow me and hold your fire until I say it's okay, understood?", "gotcha, let's go!".

The ghosts attempted to exit undetected through the busy launch pad, everything was okay on the early until suddenly an explosion occurs on the 5th floor above them as they reach the 3rd floor, they avoided the falling path untouched but the heatwave from the explosion has already disrupt their cloacking device, but none below them saw the two as they stickto the wall, weapons readied upward in case enemies topside. The path on the 4th floor were cut-off, while Freddie dispose some guards above on the , Li fired her rope-gun to the wall ahead across the gap, hung the other end above and swung across, she covered his approached from the enemy above starting to noticing their presence.

They continuing their long climb to the 13th floor under fire from guards below and above them armed with AK-12, but eventually they reached the room on the 13th floor through fierce battle with the elite forces guarding the silo, they came to a dark unused room, one light bulb lite up ladder that according to Li its equivalent in height to twenty more floors. "You go first sister, I'll slow them down" freddie said as he fiddle his M18 Claymore mine to the corner directed to the door, another one on the other dark corner of the room directed where they approach the stairs, he followed her once he finish with the mines, climbing all the way up for about two and half minutes where they reached the surface of earth, southern part the Camp 22 according to their navigation system.

"What now?" Freddie ask while his mate still figuring out how to get out from North korea, "There..." She said pointing behind freddie, it was nothing but a green across the horizon, the holographics word 'West' were red on the sky ahead,"There...we'll go to china and..." Her words were cut by sudden explosion occurs ahead of their position, its caught their attention so they get closer to it finding out what's going on, Li spotted enemies ahead and realized that they are behind the midst of enemies going to the village, this curious the man and the woman "What the hell is happening there?".

The more closer they were to the enemy groups the more they shoot a guard or two under their medium patrol since their stealth property were lost by the heatwave, they've take out five patrols along their five minutes journey to what turns out to be an attacked village with many men and women corpses lying all over the scene, Li shot her suppressed SCAR-L in the executors head before he fired his pistol to an old woman powerless to resist "I started to hate them, freddie" she said.

"We're going to secure the village" freddie said walk onto the norther sector of the village starting to shoot every soldiers they encounter, "Ghost team, do you read me? What's your status? You all okay?" A transmission just get to their system, an allied transmission traced to the sea of Japan, "We're all okay, lots of hostiles in our current position, they shooting civilians" She replied behind freddie shooting three rounds burst mode of his AR-15, "Reinforcement inbound, first wave is two minutes ETA to hold the village" it was Derrick Parker aboard the USS Patricia Caldwell outside North korean Water, "Copy, Command" Matilda said while searching for the attacking forces in the village.

On their middle of the search they encountered and freed the villagers held in shed ahead, she takes them westward to the farmhouse just far left of where they are, she keep the survivors secured in a farmhouse located at the westside most of the village, "Second reinforcement inbound from to extract the villagers. ETA is five minutes Just hang in there!". Freddie and Matilda continue to killed lots of incoming troops despite outnumbered with guerilla tactics, killed over nineteen enemies with freddie using the SVD Li gave him while she using the M203 against troops between the hill far forward and the farm in front of building she hang by.

Suddenly a savage roar of gunfires of their east filled the area around muting other noises, it was the four men cell Hunter team wearing Navy pattern AOR2, just a click away on the east were '30' whose raining down the bullets from his M240B with 'Pepper' taking out the enemy forces coming from the right flank of the village with the Mk.12 SPR M16, Maj. Ferguson with his Rx-4 and the K2C/M320 armed 'Kozak' rushes to the recon team's position cover the left flank of the village in the farm.

They hold off the incoming enemy forces until..."This is Dagger 3, target sighted, beginning the attack at once" another explosion occurs again behind the hills the enemy coming from, it was an A-20 Razorback flew over at 500 feet Mach 0.5 struck the oncoming forces with JDAMs, the engine roar were deafening anyone in the village crumbled the enemies morale "This is Dagger 3, target is strucked..bring in the Stallion", two and a half minutes later a CH-53L Super stallion coming in from southeast escorted with the AH-1Z Viper and the SH-60 Seahawk attacking enemy positions concentrated to the village with the big bird landed by the farm deploying mariners in Multicam fatigue, "The marines will be deployed to evacuate the villagers to their CH-53 and take off southeast, hold your position until the Seahawk landed in the village to extract all of you!" Cmdr. Parker ordered, "Pepper, 30, regroup with Li, tight up the right flank!" Ferguson commanded.

The Marines recovered twenty eight villagers from the farmhouse to the CH-53 stationed southside of the village, for about a minute the Seahawk gunship supported six ghosts facing the dwindling attack from the NKA forces, "Mothership 1-1 we're taking off", eventually the gunship approached the farm to pick up the ghosts as the Marines were airborne leave the village. "Good thing you two still alive, we thought you were all thriced meat sacks there!" 30 said to them as they onboard the seahawk, "umm...how come you guys came here?" she ask, "haven't you heard? The Camp 22 were about to rampaged, they gonna turn it to a military base. That's why we're here" Ferguson explained why the two younger soldier come to a purged village.

The ghosts were taken to the USS Patricia Caldwell sailing together with the USS Bonhomme Richard closing in to the north korean water zone.

Hoeryong, North Korea

Missile silo where the ghosts exiting it

The Next day, 11.52pm

The Silo were exploded, alarms going off all over the camp, "This is Razor 1, Silo has been destroyed, returning to Base" said the female B-1B pilot who just flew over at 35.000 feet.

Extra Note

\- EA-18G Block IV is a Growler with main wing model based on the AC3 F/A-18U, pointy section inner flaps but without Aero COFFIN cockpit (Not just yet!)


	3. Desert Dagger

Downtown L.A., California

October 1st, 2026 9.12am

"Yeah I know, clara!"

By the liquor store were an asian looking soldier in Navy AOR1 with his Sat-Phone, he sat on his sportsbike, a white Yamaha YZF-R1M, he hold a black backpack as he talked to his family before resuming his journey, the bike were parked by a parking lot behind the building which saw three cars with owners inside, "I'm not posted there...don't worry, probably to middle east to train allied forces, simple like that"

"Sounds like a governments lie to me!" His wife said, sniffed, sign she'll cry, "You were going to Korea, right? We're on war, that was correct. We...no, everybody has saw the news, Charles" her tears weren't held anymore, a tear drop drip down her cheek which she wip off with her hand, "Oh...come on, someone else in my base camp would be sent there but not me, trust me, it will be just training Iraqi guards, the matters at korea wasn't break out to war yet", there was no reply from her, it wasn't a lie he told about he weren't going to korea except for training allied forces talk, whatever it was it was a top secret not for a civilians, "I'll be back home, I'm promise. When I'm back, I was thinking we can go to Mongolia, buy some skittles and some twix" he tries to amuse which she only chuckles with her husbands lacking in being a funny person, "Whatever...okay, you be careful out there, honey!", he just nodded with that, "I love you, so of course I will...bye!" her husband replied with a kiss added before she kissed him and end the call, he put the phone back to his backpack, wore it and goes off. "Daddy has gone to work, mommy!" His daughter asked clara as she back to the kitchen baking a cake, "Yes he were, my dear. Is the cake ready?", she take a look to the oven, shut it down and pick up the tray serving the cheesecake, just for two of them instead three in usual occasion, that thought brought clara back to the recent news, deaths of two reporter at korean peninsula, what if her guess were true? What if he going to korea? What will happened to him there?. "What's wrong, mommy?" Her daughter snap her back, "Ah...nothing, sarah...umm...how about we cook dimsum tomorrow, daddy loves dimsum!", she looked closer to the daughter cheered, "Oppa loves dimsum!"

Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

11.16am

Sgt. 1st Class Charles Cho-eun arrived at Miramar where marine corps airmen and staffs passed by here and there, among them were the Robust build Ghost Team Echo 1 Leader Assault class Maj. Bo Jenkins just went out from his black Ford TS50. Jenkins is not alone, he also take two teammates : the Sung Kung look-alike Major Abe Koji and the latina boyish looking Sgt. 1st Class Gary Wilson went off from the backseat of their team leaders car, all of them wearing Urban UCP Clawgear TDU1 uniform. Now they went inside the building together with Bo briefed Cho-eun "We went to Gulf of Aden today as part of coalition forces for the government of Somalia, we have a war here, the rebels are rampaging around the Mog, robbing food supplies and raiding villages, attempt on robbing official presidential. I tell ya what, this gonna be both tribe war and genocide, three blocks war we dealing with, two sides bleach each other tries to take the governmental at Mogadishu, we gonna gives hands to the official government", "How many team do Lieutenant General assembled?" Cho-eun asked, "He mobilized all Echo and Foxtrot teams directly to where we're about to go today, Foxtrot is already on their way to the USS Alreigh Burke, we gonna go to the USS Kings Mountain at 1120 hours..put our packages in the accommodation and meet the LT General reporting for duty".

The Echo 1 Team meet up with the Echo 2 Team in the briefing room comprised of the bearded white man as their leader Captain Kyle Cunningham, the typical tanned mexican looking Master Sgt. Pedro Rodriguez, two SFC Bak Shi-Hoo whose a Korean-American like Choeun, and the rather teenage looking Elsa Clarkson whose is Maj. Koji's Classmate when they were still in Tokyo school, both moved to Virginia at 2005. Maj. Bo looked onto his watch and informed "Alright, we got a green light to get aboard, pack up and let's go." While they're on the way to the MV-22 "Where's the Foxtrots?" elsa ask to Jenkins, "they're already on their way to the USS Alreigh Burke sailed with the Kings Mountain". As they boarded the helicopter, the hatch closed and the red lights lite the cabin where they seated as they on their way to the Gulf of Aden.

Inside the MV-25 above the miami are now the eight ghosts in all Digital Camo field uniform (except Charles Cho-eun) who mostly (including Bo himself) enjoy their little sleep before landing on the ship they were went to, Elsa were listening to the music in her IPod while enjoying the scene outside the window of the Tilt-rotor helicopter that currently flying around 10.000 feet, beside her were her countrymen Maj. Abe koji whose writing an E-Mail in kanji with his Laptop to his wife. "I hear your father were now in Aomori?" Elsa ask in japanese, "yeah, he went back two weeks before the news. He said he wanted to open his Soba restaurant" Koji replied her in japanese as well while typing. "Hmm...wait, I thought you want to taught me how to make one", "Yeah, but back in home, no one will learn the secret recipe unless me!", "Aahh screw you! You couldn't even fried an egg without me!", "Hey I..."

Gulf of Aden

USS Kings Mountain (Essex Class) bearing 090

1.56pm

"Mustang 2-1, you're cleared for immediate landing at Spot 2" comms from the Kings Mountain bridge breaking the silence in the MV-22 pilots helmet as they approach the ship from the rear, it tilted up the rotors as it reach half mile of the Landing spot "aww...another day with the damn sailors..." Shi-hoo muttered. He were startled by a sudden shake on the plane, he soon realize that the helicopter had landed "alright fellas, stand up!" Bo said to his comrades as the hatch clanked and opened, outside the hatch is Lt. Gen. Mitchell in all Urban Digi camo uniform and Alicia Diaz in a one piece flight uniform mixed with assaulter vest, cowboy hat and keanon sunglasses, behind them were two Japanese made F-3B with it's cockpit hatch opened and the H.A.W.X. Logo emblazoned on each tail wings, bought recently two units for evaluation purpose. "Alright gents...and of course Sergeant Elsa..." Mithcell bowed to her 45 degrees, men onboard were chuckle to her "Oh...General, Come on!", "Welcome to the Horn of Africa. Come on, I'll take you people to your room, hope you're not forget to bring your UV blocker because we'll be here longer than the Delta's back in 93". They got onto their accommodation and unpack their meals, personal sidearm, Notebooks, etc.

Inside the CIC...

"Gentlemen, thanks for coming in short notice.." General Mitchell greets Maj. Abe Koji and Sgt. Charles Cho-eun, "What is up this time, General?" Ask Abe, "Well...first...Your target were the Depot on the east coast of the Red Cross for the refugee camps scattered all over the east coast. The depot has small docks for the boats transporting the supply packages, yet worse that the pirate group were reported stealing all of the refugees supplies, you're not to destroy a single property in that depot, just clean it from the pirates and if there were any hostages held..you too do the savior. Now...we're here to spearhead the government forces trying to stand-off the insurgent attack in multiple areas near Marka and Mog, report just come in that their strength were increased in weekly basis, enough to take over the capital and scare to shit anyone trying to straight it again", "I saw a refugee camp south of the depot here, what about these, sir?" ask Abe again as he saw what's two clicks south of the target area, "That too were added to the mission, residence were live under the pirates pressure for about three month's which means you too must search and sweep that camp as well for the hostiles and check for any intel that might kept there and the depot, capturing the chain commander of the group were so much better to find out what we were up to heree". "What about the pirates strolling the coasts?" Ask Charles, "We'll deploy six Attack helicopters to search and destroy any pirates in the waters of Kenya and Somalia, allied vessels in the aden gulf and eastern coast of somalia will play armed support against the other pirates along the coastline. We'll play at 1500 hours, now you may pack up your equipments onto the MH-60R parked at Spot 1 and then get some rest...good luck gentlemen" both soldiers then leaving the CIC and head to the Armory for equipment pack-up. Maj. Koji takes the M16 look-alike HK416 Assault Rifle with Aimpoint M2 Red dot optic already fitted with 20rds STANAG Magazine supplied with additional six 30rds Mag boxes as well as a Smith &amp; Wesson Model 262 Revolver. As for Cho-eun, he takes the Mk.48 Light Machine Gun with a Holosight optic supplied with 5 150rds Ammo boxes plus a P90TR as the secondary weapon, both soldiers carrying four flashbangs each for civilian encounters.

"You know, Major?"

"What?"

"Why were us sent for this mission? I thought we have other Expeditionary units onboard ready to pull this up"

"Well...they were about to be transported to Marka, they gonna leave today at 1520"

03.00pm.

"Overlord to all attack helos, clear for airborne attack. I say again...all attack helos are clear for attack", six AH-85 Blackfoots take-off from the USS Kings Mountain and disperse along the coastal area followed by an MH-60R Seahawk transporting the two Ghosts. "ETA to LZ is 5 minutes, ghosts!". While the ghosts whose covered in tan balaclava as well as strapped with CADPAT Tac-Vest taken to their LZ the Blackfoots silenced many pirates strolled all over the eastern coast of africa to southeastern Somalia, as it continues.."LZ is hot, gunner sweep it immediately" the Seahawk pilot warned the door gunner which he comply by shooting the M2 50. Machine gun, the Ghosts support the seahawk gunner by make good use of the two only M16A4s onboard against fifteen pirates on the rocky terrain LZ. The pirates swiftly repelled and Cho-eun quickly fast roped from the helicopter without wearing a Ballistic helmet followed by Koji ready with his tan OpsCore Helmet and went to the nearby rock for cover against another incoming pirates "I'm counting so far twelve, major", "let's beat them down. Hold your position, try to take them down in long-range attack", "roger that, let's see what this guys can do", they were on defensive for about two and half minutes, collecting lifes of seven pirates (three kills for Cho-eun and four kills for Koji), the remaining five were hiding behind the rocks. "Hold your fire, Cho-eun! We'll make em coming to us" Cho-eun nodded "yhehea! Cap 'em like fools, eh?". Koji pick his 262 Model revolver from his right waist holster and check if all of six bullets were readied, checking the remaining five with the AR (Augmented Reality), the five pirates were walking away from their cover and closing in...and closer "Now!" Koji hissing, he then shot the pirates with his revolver killing two of them while the rest were gunned down by Cho-euns P90, "okay we're cleared, let's move...the depot were just a click away from here, stay on the rocks and you'll be fine".

The two rangers continue to make their way through the rocks, if they under attack they still could take cover as well as the enemies mostly would mind to traverse them outside the open sandy terrain since they're not military trained and doesn't want to trouble themself by the difficult terrain, its about a minute and half calmly traverse the rocky terrain before Koji noted "That's the depot, hold position and stay low. Observe the enemy outside", "Okay, we're going stealth?" Ask the Korean-american, "no, keep your balls on, if anything happens we got six Choppers having their eyes on us and our target objectives too" Koji whose now switch back to his HK416 ended, Cho-eun just simply nod. "I think I can recon the camp there before assaulting from the other front" Cho-eun ask "Wait, let me count the numbers and stuffs on that docks, give me a minute", both observe the docks for hostiles and any explosive stuffs, "light resistance, six guys on the docks and green from explosive...okay, go on...report to me if you done, hit them from two sides", "yes, sir" the two move closer to the depot and the camp, cho-eun went climbed a big rock and observe the camp, next to it were another rock that bigger than one he climbed and enough to conceal his crouching stance, "hmm...I got eight or maybe ten tangos, four of them didn't behave nice to the peoples, your call" he report while readied his Mk.48, "Assault the depot through the camp!" The Maj. Ordered, the two open fire on anyone identified hostile in their IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), The Gunner switched his AR to Magnetic Detection mode and take down five hostiles from his observation point, holing tents with 5.56s, from his Magnetic view he could see five more pirates coming to where the sound of his gun is come from, he hide before they gathered at the edge of the sandy terrain and with the gun pointed forward to nothing but a rocks and blue sea. Confused, they rest down their gun and without realizing the korean-american man peak and pointed his secondary and fired them all in multiple pulls of the trigger, one of them managed shoot him back before he fallen to die only to have his only fired 7.62 Kalashnikov round hit the water, "All clear here, going for another rounds". "Overlord to Echo 1, I got two technicals inbound from the south, ETA 60 seconds...stay alert" General Mitchell warns him, "don't worry general, I'll make'em onto kimchi" he stayed above the rock waiting to ambush the vehicles, Maj. Koji...although facing heavy resistance, he manage to kill six pirates with his guerrilla tactics by shooting one or two in the head and moved to the different spot to repeat the process, eventually he entered the two-stories southern storage building and killed four occupants except the two hostages he found locked in the upstairs office, he decided to keep them locked and safe until he cleared the depot, suddenly he heard two explosions coming from the refugee camp as he replace the empty magazine from his still chambering 416 with Magpul STANAG, "1-4, what was that?" He asked as he put the mag and slap push it, "I've destroyed two technicals went to the camp, I'm going in from the southern gate". He went out through the buildings western exit where he found the checkpoint unguarded, "Checkpoint is secured...get inside the southern building and look for intel, be advised there two hostages locked in the office upstairs", "Understood, Major" cho-eun replied with cheerful tone but still have his concentration uphold.

The team leader who now switch to his Magnum moved towards one of two warehouse on the western complex, he killed one pirate exiting the building with one Magnum shot to the chest and punch him back inside, he shoot another one who just about to went outside but punched back onto a stack of wooden crates, the crates collapsed onto three hostiles behind it and another stack of crates which also collapsing all remaining crates inside, "...wow...I guess the top gonna scold me!" He were amused with what he had done, he didn't realize that he knocked out the HVT inside in the process, "Damn straight, you just inflict a damage of properties possibility owned by the Red Cross, hah...see how's the damage and certain us if it's the Crosses props or not" Mitchell said a bit tempered, himself too couldn't stand to not laugh about it. Koji is inside the building with crates full of turns out to be AKS-74Us spilled all over the floor, the Lt. Gen. have the feed on what the two Army saw thanks to their Augmented Reality "guess you must suppress your temper, general, I didn't find any med kits or stuffs here. 1-4, can you provide cover fire outside?", "All is secured in this building, roger that..how about if I went to the dockyards?", "that's cool, Cheddar" he exited the building and went to the dockyards, on the way he killed four pirates went to the building E1-2 were in with his P90, he check his Mk.48s ammo to find plenty bullets before he must switch to another box "got small numbers of hotheads inbound from northwest, they're running onto the open area without knowing what to do...how foolish" cho-eun chuckle, "you embarassing 'em, take them down" the Maj. replied simple. "Overlord here, you got massive enemy reinforcement inbound from the west ETA 4 minutes, SEAL Team Isurus is bound to your location...minus 2 Minutes, hang in there", "alright, my lord" Koji replied. Inside the building, after securing two hostages into the office room, he went to dig up the crates looking for an HVT buried by it, he found him unconscious "Overlord, I've recovered an HVT, I say again...HVT is recovered, I'm gonna take him to the office room here", "copy that...he's okay?" "Sir, he's unconscious...you could blame me for that", he stop to reload four 44. Magnums after he secured the HVT and went to the next building and secure the interior from three pirates, again he unleash his revolver at three of them without hit by their shoots of AK-47, a gun that had an inbuilt wooden front grip like the AKM, "Major...do you notice a flag or markings on the spilled Kalashnikov Carbines?" Mitchell asked, "negative, none" Koji replied, "Whose supplying them with weapons and tanks then?" The lieutenant general wondered

Tanks? Koji asked himself disbelief.

Regardless he still done his job on taking out hostiles trying to enter the building next up, there he found nothing important for the mission, he's heading to the last building on the north section of the depot. He switch back to his M16 look-alike HK416 and breach enter through the east side entrance to find himself confronted by another four hostiles : three african pirates, and a woman upstairs armed with Colt M727, he take cover behind the a stack of small containers on his right and avoid a hit from the woman, he take a peek to shot the pirates first though difficult by the females shooting skill yet she using the lightest firearm than the pirates employed, koji killed two pirates and the other one went around to ambush him with the result of the ambushed eliminate the ambush. Idea come up that he set two Flashbangs against the woman upstairs, he peek a bit in still near the entrance to see if she shoot him...and she did shoot him almost scratch his helmet, he make a groan like he get hit and sneak around to the other side where the ambush-man come from and throws two Flashbangs upstairs, fooled and stunned the turns out asian woman, he tries to shoot her ACOG M4A1 which successful, he tries another shot aimed at her sidearm still strapped at her left leg and again he did it, he then went on her and take her down with his Juijitsu skills that rendering her unconscious allowing him to handcuff her safely. The female HVT whose wearing a typically olive green shirt of north korean army and insignias covered in another CADPAT tac vest used by the US military and beige cargo pants were kept in the office room where she came out, inside he found two empty suitcases and a cabinet full of files and folders all were stamped with a red star logo in a white circle, he put all intels into the suitcases and strap it onto his tac vest. "Overlord, Team Echo 1 has recovered hard quantity of intels and two HVTs. Awaiting orders", "Copy that Echo 1-2. What the hell is just happening?" now the tempered Gen. Mitchell asking koji regarding the groan on the radio, "I've played a...mini trick? on that woman", "woman?", "another HVT, sir" Koji said slightly panting, "...oh..well then, I've dispatched a Stryker for your exfil, sit tight!".

Sgt. Cho-eun decided he would regroup with Koji who has make everybody worried caused by his cheap trick, "1-2, I'm coming to your twenty" he reload his LMG on his way to Koji now covering by the doorway he comes in, gun down every pirates trying to enter the depot area from west, the door were opened normally "Hey major...trying to freak me out, huh?" Cho-eun said to his friend as he gone upstairs, "She's pretty!" Charles remarked when he saw the knocked out HVT in the room as he ready by the window, Koji switched to Magnum again just to waste the remaining three 44. Rounds before reloading another six rounds pack to it and switch to his Assault Rifle. "What's on the docks, Oppa charles?" Now he ask cho-eun "the stack of crates were nothing but guns, Kalashnikovs with inbuilt front grip...and some MP7s", koji thought on the later, it was a gun used by NATO, how come the pirates getting one? Was there a third party supplying them? while the two army men gunned down more pirates that constantly coming in, a rumble noise of helicopters were heard outside "this is Hammer 1...we're on the LZ. Hammer 2, how about you lifting the bonds for the ghosts?", "Hammer 2, roger..we're circling around the western depot", one of two MH-60R Seahawk hovering 20 feets above the building heights to the western area and provide support fire for the ghosts, "Begin descent!" the lead craft dropped six FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) HK416C armed DEVGRU operators on the middle dock, "this is Hammer 1 to Echo 1, we're on the ground towards your twenty...where's the hostages and VIPs?", "Search the two large buildings and one smaller storage left of the two buildings in our left large building..how copy", the olive drab balaclava SEAL in desert tan zip up flight uniform strapped with black tactical vest decipher the reply, in no time he got it "Understood...hold fire on your 7 o'clock then, two friendlies inbound to your building", the six SEALs cells dispersed to the informed target buildings, two of them saw the two Army men trying to fend of the pirates "The chick is upstairs!" Cho-eun instruct them to look after the HVT in the office upstairs, they'll intended to take HVTs and the hostages from the battlezone assuming one chopper were still on stand by around the docks, "Echo team, we'll take the HVTs and the hostages to the chopper for evac!", "Go ahead!" the fighting continues with the massive pirates that overlord report were coming earlier than expected, "Guess it's better for dropping the Hammer 2 now" the two Army men said accidentally at the same time, and the six ACOG ACR armed Hammer 2 cells did deployed above the two smaller buildings reinforcing the western gate while Hammer 1 reinforcing through the southern gate after just evac the hostages and HVTs, the battle heated up for five minutes with lots of loses for the pirates and just one SEAL getting skidded in his right cheek by a stray AK bullet from the pirates.

7 minutes later the attacks were dwindling with corpses of the pirates lying all over the open field near the entrance, "well...it's over..." koji sighed looking at his revolver empty of bullets, he had no more reserve ammo for his 'Amusing' weapon, "yeah...we should stroll outside for our exfil cars now..shall we?" Ask Charles whose now holding the AK-47 from one of the dead pirate, he found the gun rather have a slightly small recoil at Full-Auto mode, he would ask about the guns later back at Kings Mountain, but now they must waited for the stryker near the refugee camp assuming the hostiles are retreating back to their camp with no one would dare enough to confront them back...or so most of them thought.

One SEAL spotted three T-80s coming from the west towards the depot, fortunately..."This is Roach 1-1, stand by...i'll clear those tanks for ya", and just a minute later..."Bombs away..." A forward swept wing fighter just flew over at medium speed above 100 feets destroyed the three tanks with one CBU-79 Cluster bomb, "Target destroyed...corpses down there just got Buddha funeral style. Ghost lead, the ETA for your Stryker is two mikes at the southern area..better be there.." The two ghosts walk to their Extraction point, "Overlord here, assuming the Hammer Team would get back to Kings Mountain...I suggest you to ask them to pass me the two suitcases", with that...the Koji and Cho-eun went to the Hammer 1 at the southern gate and handed over the suitcases, "Alright..we'll take care of these for you...it's been a pleasure to work with you guys" the Hammer 1 Leader handshake the two Ghosts, "yeah...well, sir we gotta go, we'll see ya again, guys" Koji smiled behind his balaclava and waving them while exiting the gate, "Overlord..Hammer 1 is received the cases..waiting for assets extraction"

"Echo 1 this Mule 1, inbound from south!"

"Copy, we'll be there!"

The men were going through another painstaking rocks to get to the km 5 southwest of the camp where the Stryker would come, they've walked for three minutes there before eventually climb up to the desert soil and mount up the armored personnel carrier equipped with Phalanx turret taking them to makeshift camp nearby marka.

Extra note

\- When you read the F-3B section, you might wonder "What?! An F-3B Shinden II with HAWX logo?!"

It were just my thought if someone who played HAWX games might made a game mod to convert one of the in game playable planes in game with ASF-X model, either the plane will be with markings (Original JASDF or other markings) or not.


	4. Noble Dragon

Somewhere around the Red Sea

October 5th 2026, 7.15pm Local Time

A cargo ship were hijacked by the Coup D'etat backed pirates. The ship were owned by the South korean government sent to somalia with relief supplies, helping the official government in combating poverty. Crews onboard were all gunned to death by the pirates except the engineers and the driver, but that until they reached the port controlled by the coup.

Two days later the news reached Seoul which the populations were furious about this, the government would sent several diplomats onto Mogadishu trying to peacefully shut dow the coup, arrived just the day after, but all killed by an RPG attack when they got transported to governmental palace. Then right just three hours after, CIA confirmed the coup activity, poised to strike Mogadishu to take out the legitimate government Omar Adin, fearing it would lead to another all out war against the neighboring countries, he contacted Seoul for help. The South korean president Ahn Jung Hun, close friend of president Omar complied, he announce assembly of moderate percentage of combined South korean army and marines to the region to stabilize the tension, US open to public its voluntary just the day after. The korean troops reached the city first in five days and already set the empty part of Mogadishu airport as their base, the United states of America as granted by the somalian president reached the city a day later using the south korean base, the head of the peacekeeping forces Gen. Kim Chang Su announce that the coalition forces would stay for two months alongside America to make up perimeters preventing the coup forces entering the capital before they assemble forces to hunt down the coup leader. Tension raised high three days after the announcement, in the southwestern outskirts of the capital, rebels attacked in the night several checkpoints, killed eleven south korean and american marine units. In response, the Ghosts were dispatched by President Harling to the capital and appraised should the attack approach the government palace.

Mogadishu, Somalia

Olympic Hotel, Bakara Market

October 18th 2026, 10.25am Local Time

The Ghosts remained standby in currently Five story Hotel used partially for the coalition troops of Korea, the same hotel the Delta Snatched numerous prisoners back in 1993. Koji saw Cho-Eun having a late breakfast with the locals on the second floor canteen. Their breakfast were a plate of rice with beef locally made and orange juices, Koji were snapped "Major...here's your breakfast", "Oh...Major Jenkins...thank you, sir" he smiled accepted the meal the Echo team Lead gave, they went breakfast together while chatting about how's live back in home. Elsa clarkson with typical tan army shirt and UCP lower lay on her bed with laptop in front of her showing some news about all kinds of happening at her new home in Alabama. Rest of the ghosts Echo team were monitoring the areas south of the palace, local armies and south korean marines armed with K2Cs patrolled the city, their appearance in Urban ACUPAT as well as their PASGT K-Pot with wrapped goggles since they're wearing Oakley sunglasses had some locals mistaken these korean as the US Military until they notice the flag patched on the shoulder.

Somewhere in Maxud Harbi road

Inside the AAV, ETA to the Stadium : 2 Minutes

10.38am

"Just got an update on what is up in Korea" Major jenkins opened a conversation with Major Koji, "what?", "Stagnant there, none of both sides gaining a gain...we maybe needed there, newbies in our unit will replace us here. We'll get there by transit at Dubai and then straight to Misawa", "Okay, sir. By the way, how's there now?", "the southies were ready for another rounds, but they were always in defensive, offensive attempts ended up awfully", "Hmm...Charles wouldn't like it" Koji just shake his head. Capt. Roy Miller whose driving the AAV in 30 MPH spotted some kind of helicopter flying high at his 12 and is getting lower as they close to its hover point, "That is JSFs helicopter I hope" said the african-american female operative beside him which attracting attention of Bo and Koji, "Wha...where's the chopper, sergeant?" Bo ask the Recon Class Sgt. 1st Class Clara Ortiz, "up there sir, I guess yo...ah! there, ahead of us!" She pointed to what she saw. Looks like a fully armed Mi-55 Locust, "Major jenkins, we have to pull over", "Do it, Miller!" Bo accept his thought.

The four operatives in Urban TDU1 and PASGT each armed with Elcan C79 attached HK416 dismount the AAV after it parked in front of a cafe rightside, a Pecheneg armed korean patrol get to them to see the helicopter, "What do we do?" Said the patrol to the ghosts, "now? You just alert the patrols, but not to fire until fired upon" said Major bo to the man who turns out to be the patrol leader, he signal his teams to stay alert, one of them readied his AT-4 and stand by at the roof of a building nearby. US Marines Stryker arrived and parked behind the ghosts AAV, eight men in desert ACUPAT and PASGT disembarked from it all armed with CompCS Remington R5. "Major Bo Jenkins?" Ask the Marine leader "Yeah...what's up?, "Rebels closing in from multiple directions we need you back in the hotel and safeguard the evacuation of the VIPs", "okay, you hear that ghosts? Hey Sergeant Miller", "yeah I hear that, but that chopper is approaching us, sir". Everybody looked onto the Locust that flying low and approaching fast towards the ghosts and as Sgt. Clara expected..."INCOMING!" The american troops spread away went to cover inside any building they encounter as they see the Locust fired a Kh-29 (NATO Codename AS-14 Kedge) Missile onto the building left of the road where there's a Korean patrol with his AT-4, two men flown away by the blast but still managed to rise up. Another Kedge is fired onto the Stryker and subsequently also destroyed the AAV as well and minorly injured one american marines on the left leg. Near the ruble, Hwang opened fire onto the Locusts two cockpits but its no avail as the canopy were armored, "MG is fired! Get outta there!" She yelled the allied nearby but its no avail to avoid another casualties, the chopper fired its Machine Gun as it flying low to the ground troops, killed three USMCs with additional two Korean marines. "Overlord to Ghosts, return to Olympic Hotel..I say again, return to Olympic Hotel and safeguard the VIP evacuation. NOW!", "we lost extraction vehicles, need a ride" Bo replied while rushed back with the american marines to the hotel on foot, "Whose of you got a Rocket launcher or Stinger?" One korean patrol yelled to the other, "Corporal Jung got killed in that building with his AT-4" another one replied. the ghosts and the USMCs were stopped by another four Strykers equipped with Computer controlled 'Ma Deuce' (M2 Machine Gun) turret, two of it were then tasked to pick up the ghosts and the american marines to take them back to the Olympic Hotel after all of them deployed their marines to reinforce the current complex.

"Contact!" One of the marines yelled

Fighting suddenly ensued between the coalition forces and the coup forces near the Stadium as the ghosts departed, "The gun were controlled automatically, right? Roy, take control of the gun!" ordered Bo, Miller control the turret manually through the HD Camera with enhanced IFF system enable the users to differentiate friend, foe or civilians as well as onfoot, onboard landborne, seaborne or airborne vehicle, "you got that flying lusty bitch?", "not yet major, let's pray that someone else had already downed it", "how's the evcuation of the legitimate government?" Ortiz asked bo, "l dunno, I'll appraise General mitchell now...Overlord...we're requesting status on the legitimate government", "he's already onboard the chopper towards an undisclosed location, you need to secure the VIPs at the hotel back in base", "yes, sir!", "my god...what's the nature they launched a coup here?", "Ortiz I just about to ask that either, now check ammo and scanner for that chopper". Suddenly while entering the National street..."MISSILE INBOUND!" The driver yelled as he steered left to avoid the missile that eventually merely crashed to a traffic as well as witnessing the destruction of the trailing Stryker instead, marines inside were dead, while the local patrol evacuate the crashed car owners, Roy fired the 'Ma Deuce' onto the source of the missile : the Mi-55 Locust, the helicopter that started the firework first. The chopper got trailing smoke and went down uncontrolled, smashed onto the big road that already blocked by a debris of another wrecked building, alternately they strolled through the market roads that packed with civilians rushed towards the hotel, suddenly a huge explosion shake the ground in the market and as far as the Stadium, through the turret camera the ghosts could see a mushroom cap like blast coming from the Mogadishu international airport, "you gotta be kidding me, they got a ballistic missile". A seconds later, they heard a roaring that getting louder, the four ghosts disembarked the Stryker right at the time they look up onto a became-common Delta Winged Flanker based fighter, "CFA-44..." Miller said almost a whisper, "was that Trinity, sarge?" Koji looked to miller whose respond him by a shrug and "I wished so".

Soon they snapped by orders of Team Leader to continue on foot to the hotel, they reached shortly to the hotel where they see two Strykers arrived to the hotel and each deployed four 707th Special Mission Battalion operators to evacuate the important occupants (VIPs) in the hotel, they got same appearance as the Korean marines patrolling the streets except their Swedish Prisma attached K1A1 Rifle hanged in front of their stomach. There are four Negotiators and additional two diplomats making up six HVTs to protect. The ghosts guarded the access to the hotel nearby, Echo Team guarding north while Foxtrot guarding the south, "Ortiz, Miller, get back to your team" they went off as Bo ordered. Charles with SFC Gary Wilson both geared with HK53 PDW approached the two, the same time a Hailstorm fighter jet passed them after the CFA-44, the european jet managed to shot down the plane that destroyed a civilian airport and nearby infrastructures, everybody cheered for a while by this.

2 minutes later

The SMBs jump into their ride with their packages inside, "where they gonna get evacuated? The port?" Cho-eun thought himself, "Overlord, VIPs been extracted. Awaiting orders", "Roger, now you gotta stay where you are until a Stryker come to pick you up take you to the port", "copy that, sir". Just less than a minute, two Strykers they're waited were arrived with rear hatch automatically opened for the ghosts letting them to just get in, the very same stryker Captain Roy Miller shot down the Locust, "stand by at the port, eh?" Gary looked disappoint with that "Bear with it Gary, those marines needed a good fight than us" assured Bo.

ETA to the Port : 3 Minutes

"We get to the port and evac the civillian...that's no go, right?" Charles asked, "Well...that's why command wanta us help kick the rebels off here" Koji replied, then the silence blanketed the cabin after that, while they still on their way to the port however...

"All units be advised, we have a Black Hawk down. I say again, we have a Black Hawk down at K4 Traffic circle. Send in the Evac Team ASAP!"

The eights were grabbed by that news thus Major jenkins called Mitchell to get appraised, "Tell Shi-hoo that his wish has been granted. Team Echo 1 and 2 were to K4 circle and evac the crews, expect high number of hostiles, Foxtrot 1 and 2 maintain course to the port", "Roger that General, LT Donovan (Driver) get us to that crash site". All seven men and a woman combined from Echo 1 and 2 checked their HK416s, Gary and Cho-eun switched to the only available ECOS ACOG XMX installed with M320 and standing by until reached their destination, the lead Stryker turned right into Via agfoye where streets were packed with not civilians anymore but local armies and Korean marines, perfect situation for a battle. "What's the radiation level around the crash site?" Asked Elsa, "...that's weird! There's no radiation indication at all!" the driver answered, "Well...that's Trinity!" Koji remarked, "This could get ugly", "I feel ya, sergeant charles. Squad, for now, just get to the crash site and do your job" Jenkins cutting the chatter, seeing the roads now have few civilians on the road was make it a heaven for ambushes.

Via Agfoye road

1 Mile before K4 Traffic circle

12.06am

Luckily, no ambush yet come to the berets

"RQ-102 Drone (AC3 R-102 Delphinus II) just spotted a survivor getting outnumbered by the coup forces, you must hurry snatch him before them", "Okay, general. By the way, were the drone armed?", "Sorry, Negative. We got three M5A2s on course from the port...just stay frosty".

Right at K4 circle

The crash site was west side of the circle with three korean patrols in Tricolor Desert uniform overwhelmed by the attack, there are corpse of their teammate near them, "Kyle, provide cover from here" the GSTs dismounted from the Stryker and four of them went after the crash site, "Echo 2, need two of your men set up covering fire from the center of the circle" Bo said, "Yes, sir. Elsa, Rodriguez..go!" Kyle ordered the two, they then rushed after the center of the circle that luckily had sandbags, Echo 1 goes in for the rescue in the midst of heavy fire from the rebels from Via lenin street, "Charlie, Gary, stay here, Abe you stay with me. Excuse me, how many survivors?" Jenkins asked the patrol shooting his CompM4 attached K2 Rifle behind the rightside cockpit, "we got all three of them heavily immobilized by the crash, i need another man to take our stretcher", "you got it, I need one of your man come with me bring the stretcher", "I'm using my last mag on my rifle now and it.." The patrol checked the ammo to find only thirteen 5.56mm left inside and put it back to his rifle, "need ammo?", "no, sir..I will get the stretcher with you", "alright, let's go". Jenkins and the korean he talk to now picking a body onto a stretcher ready inside the wreckage, the korean get outside first to pull the Black Hawk gunner out then the stretcher afterward, jenkins ordered Gary to assist Elsa and Rodriguez in the circle as he take the wounded man to their APC at Via agfoye street rightside of the road providing fire support for the evacuation attempt. But to their surprise..."My god!..they got three tanks!" said Elsa, "LT! Get the ride behind the building" Major Bo commanded as he and the korean mariner pass by to pick up the rest two, "Sir, I think we should evacuate one more of them and carry the other southside towards the port" said the korean, "no can do, all will be with the stretcher, we don't wanted to get shot while running away", the two get back inside to pick one of two pilots inside while the others outside facing fierce attack from the rebels, suddenly the lead enemy tank destroyed by a stray cannon from the port, they look behind to found three MBTs "friendly tanks inbound! South!" Echo 2 Leader (Captain Kyle Cunningham) yelled from his position in Agfoye street. There are three tanks coming to support, two of it take position west and east side of the circle battling the remaining two T-80s, the three ghosts in the circle continue providing cover fire for the rescue attempt of second wounded man, two AH-58 Blackfoots flown west somewhere of the K4 circle taking out some RPGs on the rooftops on their way with rockets.

"2-5 here, more rebels coming in from the north, hurry up!". The fighting is some how three times more intense than before...

That said, the men carrying a wounded man doesn't stop and wait for the fighting to calmer, all also thanks to Cho-eun for make use of his M320 primarily against the RPG position trying to attack the allied tanks. Two Black Hawk crews were onboard the Stryker already, Jenkins and his new mate rushed through the crossfire to get the last one they sitted him behind the cockpit seat. They got their stretcher near the door and put the Pilot on it, and rushed again for the third and the last time to the Stryker. They almost got hit by an RPG round, the rocket hit the ground near the two and fallen one of them temporarily, the korean stayed down for a bit trying to regain consciousness. "Koji! Take the stretcher! Someone help this guy out from the line of fire!" Jenkins yelled without knowing where he shouted to, he shook his head again and again until he regain total consciousness, at that time he saw two allied tanks engulfed in flames and the other one exploded by an RPG attack plus Elsa and Abe take the Stretcher to the APC, "Go Abe! Go!" Jenkins letting him go while he trying to rise up his 'New mate', Charles were off behind one of the destroyed M5A2 tank, Kyle were still covering with Donovan involved shooting the XMX, Bak Shi-Ho were with foxtrot safeguarding the evac of civilians..."Where's Pedro?", "shot in the head, no signs of life anymore" reported Cho-Eun, this pissed the old grenadier, he urged the whole team to retreat. Bodies of an SF operatives in the hands of foreign troopers (especially hostile) are not acceptable but carrying him would slow him down and only add additional corpse to fallen right out of Mitchells hand, he went to the circle pick Pedros HK416 rifle and vest before lob an HE (High Explosive) Grenade onto the body of his Teammate, "I'm sorry, son" Bo whispered before leave south followed by Cho-eun lob a HE grenade onto the helo wreckage as well.

12.11am

The formerly Golf Detachment with the help of patrol team from the Republic of Korean Marines had evacuated all three wounded crews as well as destroyed the wreckage with an HE Grenade thrown into the cabin, three US tanks were destroyed by RPG attacks, none of the crews survived "Overlord to Echo Team...Crash site and crews secured. Hurry evac to the port, intel report massive coup forces marched towards the port", Jenkins got punched hard with the lost of all three armored support that should covered them, but more punching to him was the lost of an operative. That said, he got to keep strong and focus, he has more lives to save and it was his job to ensure his boys and girls make it back home in one piece, "yes, sir! Fallback to the port", the Golf Company retreated together with the Korean marines to the port on foot in the midst of crossfires, on their way were one marines got hit on the head by the intensifying rebel attack, then another one of the marines got hit on his right waist, Shi-hoo strayed from his team to help the downed man, "Leave me...Leave me, you gotta go back to the port..that's the vital asset for us! Go!" The downed man speaking korean to him, dilema hit him hard whether to help him or just left his countrymen, almost screw him up until he got snapped "Get out of here, you gonna die! These people needed you! Go Now!", by that..."Here take this..." Shi-hoo give two of his STANAG magazines to him and his M92F sidearm and leave.

5 Minutes later

New port Facility

The port area were covered in high concrete wall, a quarter percentage of the area were occupied by civilians accommodated in makeshift barracks. Solution for the troops to stay and facilitate the combat hardwares was to lend USS Kearsarge, Essex and an Alreigh Burke Class Vessel of ROKN as a makeshift Forward Operating Base in the Mog. Ghosts however, had two MH-60Rs on stand by take them back to the USS Kings Mountain for another deployment in the region.

Extra Note

\- AC3s R-102A Delphinus II in this and upcoming chapters (RQ-102A Delphinus for USAF) is a UAV built jointly by Japan and US for SO uses, made for reconnaissance and attack targets, providing support for JSOC.

There will be manned version with COFFIN, the Phase 2 version retaining its already look from the original AC3, but on future AC-TC fics, set on future ahead.

\- Trinity was the nuclear weapon developed by Blatnoi in Ace Combat Assault Horizon universe, it has destructive power lower than typical nuclear weapon but without emitting radiation effects within and around the blast radius, basically the Multipurpose Ballistic Missile (MPBM) from Ace Combat Zero.


	5. DEFCON

San Francisco, California

Tuesday October 15th 2026, 9.24am Local time

Another day with very clear blue skies, the preferable way to enjoy the view is that you're at the Alamo park or elsewhere away from the bustling and sprawling urban of Saint Franco, streets filled with cabs, sedans, SUVs, Trucks and many more, sidewalk also had sprawled with peoples criss-crossed to wherever they're going.

Golden Gate Bridge. A bridge that connect the Redwood County and the city itself. Many vehicles criss-crossed the bridge, people on the walkpath were not as many as usual as well despite tomorrow were day off. But still, there were sense of peace.

"Missile inbound from the west!"

"Missile inbound? Where does it inbound to?"

Just then...

"The Golden gate Bridge were hit by the missile!"

The bridge were hit by the missile in the central area, the roads then ripped and tumbled down, cars were fallen to the sea as the result, there were still occupants trapped inside. The scenery of it can't be missed by everybody in either Redwood or San Franco itself, police patrolling the cities report it to the HQ, they thought it was a terrorist attack "We got Code 3 on the Golden Bridge, I repeat Code 3 on the Big Bridge. Send Medevac to the scene ASAP"

"All Redwood and San Francisco Fire Department are to scramble to the Golden Bridge immediately, I say again all Redwood and San Francisco Fire Department are to scramble to the Golden Bridge immediately. This is no exercise"

Police patrols that were happened to be on the bridge rushed to the explosion site to help clear the area, just then one of them report "This is 3 Delta 2-9 currently near the scene, be advised that i got multiple jet planes coming from the sea at high speed skimming the water surface. Its headed straight to the Golden gate", from afar its unidentifiable but can be seen that it has one vertical stabilizer and its wings were narrower than any current US military jet planes, the police were sure that it isn't the long retired Corsairs, Starfighters or Falcons, for seconds later...the lead jet spit a white trail smoke that separate away onto where anyone on the bridge doesn't wished. "Missile inbound to the Golden gate!" The officer shouted with his radio, the missile hit the bridge one half mile behind his Police issued Dodge Charger SRT-8, about three seconds later the jets passed below and above the bridge which by then he could recognize it as British Tornados and Swedish Grippens in white gray camouflage without any markings, thanks to the fact that he got a rushed adrenaline although he's not sure what would he do, danger is awaiting. Suddenly he heard a loud crack behind his car, the road he is at were crumble down by the explosion, but the doors were locked and his key were stuck, thus he's trapped inside his cruiser that then fell onto the warm strait below him before he could do a thing to open the driver door, he along with other cars and pedestrians around him slammed hard into the water and sunk to the bottom of the strait with the other cars, fortunately for him he had the window on the driver door slid down which allow him to escape from his sinking cruiser, more fortunate for him that there were no more falling cars around him. There though, many cars fall down with people trapped inside, windows slid up and can't be opened, there were also two coast guard boats with all of its crews already disembarked evacuating handful of peoples, they're outnumbered by fallen peoples even with few who survived and helped others, they're only five coast guard members on each boat but the drownings were beyond

"Help Me! I can't Swim!"

"My Mommy! She's drowned! Help her!"

"Please Help Me! I can't swim! I don't wanna die!"

They're lack of supporting men, almost no chance for them to safe the troubled civilians getting more deeper into the strait of saint franco.

Fresno Yosemite International Airport

9.31am

"Tower to Griffin flight you're clear for direct Take-Off once you're entered the Runway 29 Right"

About ten F-15Cs from the Air National Guard 144th Fighter Wing taxied out from the ANG Ramp south of the airport, there were about ten F-16Cs taxied from the Air Force Ramp towards 29R as well, these jets were armed with four AIM-9X Sidewinders and four AIM-120E AMRAAMs as well two Fuel Tanks on the wings. "This is Griffin 1, we're in the Runway, we're taking-off" the lead F-15 lit up ABs (Afterburner) right as his plane aligned for take-off without have to stopping, the other nines do the same, as soon as he were at Angles 1 he turned towards San Francisco still climbing to the designated Angles 2, his wingmen joined immediately.

30 miles away from Morro bay

USS David Hamilton (Gerald R. Ford Class)

Navy 9th Carrier Air Wing readied four F/A-18Es in all four catapults set for shot, these Block III CFT fitted Super Hornets were armed with six X-3 Sidewinders and eight Echo AMRAAMs on inner wing section. "Flash 1 Control to Camelot 1, you're cleared for Go. Camelot 2 to Camelot 4, follow up next in sequence".

"Two, Roger!" Said the female pilot in Cat-2, written on the canopy of her plane were 'C. HERMONIE'. On the rear deck of the ship were three MH-60S Seahawks ready for dispatch to rescue peoples reported fallen from the bridge, they're to stand by until all Super Hornets launched to the air, the lead plane got launched first followed 5 seconds later Camelot 2 to Camelot 4 which by then the three Seahawks airborne to the partially tumbled bridge, "National Guard Command to Camelot flight, unmarked fighters confirmed still attacking the bridge, you're cleared to engage!"

Back above the city

The National Guard F-15s and F-16s were overwhelmed by numerous Tornados and Grippens sprawling the skies, missile trails scattered all over the sky high, there about three NG Fighters destroyed by the intruders (2x F-16 and an F-15). "God! There's too many of them!" One of the NG Pilot complained, not only too many...the Tornados were quite armored that it's waste many shots of missiles, there fourteen of them currently attacking SAMs approaching the bridge from both city and county with use of its Jammers and six Maverick missiles, the Grippens were agile due to its small size and Delta-Wing design, weirdly its also somehow faster than the present standard, all ten swedish made crafts were armed with six ASRAAMs and six AMRAAMs. One JAS-39 chased an F-16 and shoot it down with machine gun effortlessly, another JAS also effortlessly take out two F-16s attempting to intercept a Tornado approaching the Redwood county, the Tornado safely take out the last three SAMs on a built up small dockyard, the SAM were interfered by the Jammers on the Tornado which thus can't detect or even do a thing.

"Air defense network is down, we're done for!"

"Camelot flight, arm your AMRAAMs for one target" the lead plane ordered. They quickly have their AMRAAMs readied, "ETA to Lock-On 1 Minute" said Hermonie. The four Super Hornets approaching the bridge at nearly Mach 2.5 with AB still on, they locked to whatever attackers flown above one of the americas longest and highest bridge, they're shocked to see through their IRST that they're locked on Grippens and Tornados, aircrafts manufactured by countries now in recovering diplomatic relationship with them. Its like thirty seconds passed with nothing until they got missile lock tone, "Camelot flight, fire Fox three",the four Echo Hornets fired one AMRAAM, four missile were traveled many times beyond speed of sound to what apparent to be three Grippens and one Tornado, within eight seconds they got their missile destroyed three SAABs and one Panavia that clearly reveal its jamming tubes on its outer wings tumbled down which by that she realize..."Aren't our AMRAAMs could be Jammed by them?", "this is Sakerfalcon 9-1 flight of three XF-16s (AC3 F-16XF Gyrfalcon), we got their electronics jammed by our system. We'll provide ESM for you guys and gals". The XF-16F were an EW platform variant of F-16F with technologies similar to the EA-18G, it incorporate canards under its intake similar to the AFTI version for aerodynamics and improved mobility compensating the expected drag from its CFTs, fixed jammer tubes on both wingtips like EA-18G plus incorporate semi-sharp edge flap design and Cockpits like the F-35. "Sakerfalcon, Phoenix, Roger that. Camelot flight, pick your target and do it again", "We're already locked to whatever it locked, skipper, waiting for fire code" said Hermonie flying behind him leftside, "Fire, now!" He said, almost simultaneously the AMRAAMs dropped and launched to its prey for about eight seconds to one Grippen and three Tornados, all three british built jets were tumbled down to uncontrollable spirals while the swedish one swollen into the flames that spitting the wings and canards. "Camelot flight, spread out and engage all targets" Phoenix ordered.

Back to David Hamilton

Two F/A-18F Super Hornets were on standby at Cat 3 and Cat 4, readied behind their Jet wash deflector were two EA-18Gs closing its Canopy.

"Fast Eagle 2, You're clear for Cat 3. Fast Eagle 3, stand by for Cat 4". Hamilton were readied another of its Block III Rhinos, their flight leader were already airborne to the ongoing party, the three were armed with six X-3 Sidewinders and eight AMRAAMs like the Tophatters while the Growlers were equipped with Centerline attached Machine Gun Pod, two High-band Jammer Pods and four AMRAAMs. Fast Eagle 2 were launched onto the skies catching up with its flight lead, no. 3 were taken to the skies seconds later catching up the other three, the deflector went down letting the two Growlers setting up to the Cat 3 and 4.

"Fast eagle 1 to control, requesting Sitrep" the female flight lead of four planes opened the comms, her Mach 1 traveling plane got emblazoned with Red stripe on the tip and diagonally across the side vertical tail adorned with Black ace logo and NH tailcode, another two-tone red and black stripe from the central fuselage to the nose.

"Fast eagle 1, Control, we lost another four F-15s and two F-16s, thirteen allied planes left", "Thirteen?" she thought supposedly twelve, "Got one Jammer aircraft just take off from Fresno, remaining two will catch up, you're cleared to engage anything and everything", "Roger, command". The two planes that take-off later regrouped with her as well the two Growlers making the six planes V wing formation, "Camelot flight, this is Fast eagle 1 currently approaching the airspace, hang tight", "Cam-lead, Aye-aye"

The four Tophatters has take out ten hostile fighters (three TNDs and seven JASs), however..."Additional crafts approaching from the west at supersonic speed" Sakerfalcon report. "Magic flight, do you mind to ID em?", "uu...no we don't" the lead two seater Super Hornet squadron replied, she with other four turned left to the oncoming enemies, "Eagle 1, Counting eight...wait! CF-118Bs!", "Any markings on them?" The Tophatter lead asked as they handled eight more bandits above the uptown Saint Franco (seven TNDs and one JAS), "Give us a time to get closer" she replied. WSO of Fast Eagle 1 zoomed the incoming hornets with its IRST, the target planes armed with six Sidewinders and six AIM-7 Sparrows don't have any markings on any part of it, "Okay, they're fast approaching the city, Camelot flight. I deemed them hostile" the lead Black Aces declared which doubted the others until she reassure "They don't have any marking or even a number, not to worry. All Fast Eagles, Fire your AMRAAMs" she command as her WSO pressed the missile launch button which then one of her AIM-120 blasted onto the CF-118 formation, her wingmen and the Growlers did the same to the Canadian-built Hornet that acted hostile like she thought "Wonderful, they got missile lock on me!" Said Camelot lead followed by Missile inbound warning as they also saw the Canadian built Hornets dispersing. The Black aces successfully take out three planes, two shots by Growlers were misses by chaffs. "Fast Eagle flight, disperse and engage. Growler flight, you are clear on your discretion", "Eagle 1, Magic 1. we'll provide long range cover from here" the man leading the Growlers replied as the two seater fighter-bombers split up after the Hostile Hornets.

The Tophatter lead chasing the last Tornado attempting to attack the SF urban which no avail, an AIM-9 struck into the exhaust of the brits attacker that obliterated onto multiple chunks, the occupants were ejected. The National Guard got only six F-15s remaining "All damaged aircraft, return to base", two of it went back to Fresno as it already got black smoke trailing from the exhaust as well report of multiple electronic malfunctions. "Griffin flight, Camelot flight, maintain position with us and provide cover for the bridge and the two populated areas between it, if the enemy getting close to it that's ours", the single seater Super Hornets went closer to the Eagles, close enough for each to see how they were armed now, the F-15s Sidewinders were beaten, the lead Griffin got none left while others only had one, three AMRAAMs were remain unused because most of their engagements were in close proximity, the Tophatters still got both Sidewinders and AMRAAMs around six to eight reserved.

"Fox Two!" Lead black aces called, the Sidewinder on the left wingtip sprinted to one of five remaining Canadian-built Hornet, its prey maneuvered hard left to avoid the missile but to no avail as the missile hit rear fuselage of the hostile plane, it tumbled the aircraft to uncontrollable backward-looping spin which surely give hard times for its occupant to eject. There were four more planes still far away from the city limit, her two subordinates killed two more with little efforts, the Growlers made another AMRAAM shots and this time they too killed the remaining two. "This is Fast Eagle 1, The last of the unmarked planes has been gone from our scope for good", "Understood Fast Eagle 1, all planes, return to base..secondary air unit has arrived" the National Guard Command replied, the secondary unit were additional ten planes mixture F-35As and F-15Cs split into two squads patrolling the shore and above the bridge, just then "This is Showdown 1-1, I got multiple white trails inbound towards the Big bridge" the lead F-35A that patrolling the shore reported "Its coming to our position, Evade! Evade!" Again the lead Lightning warned, but its too late...The trails were from the cruise missile set off midair like a ballistic missile, the five F-35s completely disappeared from both radars and naked eyes, not even a wreckage sighted in the skies, "Oh Christ...what the hell was that?" The leader F-15 shocked.

Far west from the city were another ballistic missiles launched from nowhere went eastward.

"This is Magic 1-6, additional ballistic missiles inbound to the bridge!" the no. 2 Growler warned, "God my, I see four missiles inbound to the Golden gate, Spear flight, get away from the missiles ASAP!" The leader of F/A-18F shout to the five F-15s, "This is Sakerfalcon 9-1, our Jammers aren't working against these things, hurry up get away from it!" The lead EA-16F flying inland closer warned, the F-15s went southward to Fresno but too late, the Ballistic missiles went near them in no time and setting-off bubble-like explosions that vaporized all the Spear flights Eagles attempting to escape, it was clean, not a debris sighted. The F/A-18E squadron alongside the Growlers trailed the Black aces getting away, "Where's the missile come from? Were there another of it coming?" Fast Eagle 2 asked, "Another twelve F-15s inbound from the northeast" said Sakerfalcon 9-1, "This is lead Rapier 1-1, we got orders from the SECDEF to Return to base, I say again : RTB for briefing, this is top priority", "...Understood, relay from AWACS the missile attack were stopped, cleared for break" said Sakerfalcon 9-1 as the three F-16 based EWs maneuvered right 180 degrees joining flight with four National Guards F-15C Griffins returning to Fresno Yosemite for briefing, the eight Navy Jets gone back to the USS David Hamilton still near Morro bay.

"Flash 1 to Camelot 1, you're clear for approach" said the Controller of David Hamilton

Three miles south of the ship were the lead Tophatter having its landing gear and arresting hook lowered ready to land, "Currently two and half miles, Approach speed...Check" confirmed the LSO, the remaining seven were circling four miles south of the ship waiting for call to deck on, the Single seater Super Hornet went steadily onto the landing strip "Currently one and half mile, Call the Ball" the LSO called, "Contoller, Camelot 1, got the Ball" confirmed the lead Echo Hornet as it getting nearing the ship, it finally got touch the deck of the ship with its Arrester hook hit the seconds wire that would stop the plane in less than three seconds.

Somewhere at Pacific Ocean

6.12pm

USS David Hamilton were now en course west, it were to sail with Yellow sea as its destination.

The galley were sprawled with some crews getting some dinner, one of the queuing pilot getting the grub were the female Flight lead of the Black Aces Squadron : Flight Officer Commander Rena Hirose. Hence her name, she had striking japanese looking but with the rare bluish black short pony hair. Behind her were her Weapon System Officer Captain Terry Robert, the texan-mexican with short beige messy hair. Rena and Terry now to pick up meals, they take beef steak with fries, a bottle of water and a Jell-O onto their pan, they then regrouped with four men on the table beside them, the four were her wingmen plus their WSO talking about the mysterious attack at San Francisco.

Outside the Ship itself were near dark night, accompanied by six Ticonderoga Class cruisers, three Sacramento Class ships and USS New York of the Iowa Class escorting the Aircraft carrier forming its own Battlegroup.

Angles 2

October 17th, 2026, 5.12pm

Cloudy and dawning skies

Multiple fighter jets whoosh the open cold sky of russia's arctic circle.

"Reaper 100 to Oktyabrisk base...Long range mission complete, request clearance to land"

Asked the leader of twelve black camo and red lined Su-35S pack flying northwest towards the snowy island four miles ahead of them where there's a large three stripped air base away from the steep cliffs to the cold arctic circle water.

October revolution island, Russia

"Reaper 100...Oktyabrisk base, you have the clearance!"

Can be seen on the parking ramp right of the strips around fifteen snow camo Su-35s, six black Su-50s, and nine black and white two tones Fandances on process being armed. on the left ramp were five Tu-160s stand idle in process of loading bombs and missiles.

Elmendorf, Alaska

October 19th, 2026, 5.42pm

"Whose that sending the Gripens and Tornados to the San Francisco? Are the Canadian government aware of this too?"

"Still no PID yet, Will. We cannot throw our suspicion to either Canada, UK or Brazil just yet until we have proofs whose behind this attack" General Crenshaw video phoned Commander bishop from Langley, "Anymore clues or evidences behind it?", "Nah, will...as you know the entire Western corridor were all disabled from San diego and up to Alaska by the attack, Navy patrol ships were sunked by the same mysterious attack on the Pacific area that day like on the Golden gate, no way there gonna be a survivor", this now too baffled Will, suspicion were placed to Russia but again there is no proof to be found and its too early to blame them for the attacks, still Bishop couldn't shake the feel that it was the soviet empire behind this, remembering with what's happening after the faithful days in DC, Nuclear attack on Saudi arabia, NRF attacks in Honshu, three blocks war, coup against Karskazev and Volodin, what else he thought? "Bishop, I know you were interested in Moscow stories now, the NSA too were peek on there but so far no evidence found too. I don't know what's really happening here, for now our focus would centered on the Kennedy Space Center", "The Freedom Star project" Will noted, "The launch day were backwarded a month and half, technical and logistical improvement they told me yesterday. You gonna fly to Eglin, there were suspicion that the attack were diversion to our space project so your job is to make sure the working up goes on without a hitch, your plane is already provided in the storage I told you last night...have a better one, commander!" Crenshaw ended the call, just then a faint clank heard nearby, coming from the A3 Hangar ahead of him, the same hangar Crenshaw 'told' last night, revealing his plane completely inside worked up by technicians with armaments and fuel, the F-22A based delta-wing sixth gen aircraft with moving stabilizers on each wingtips and three moving nozzle slats on each exhausts, it was the navy stealth fighter Hellcat II (AC3 XFA-36A Game) adorned with special Slovakian Thunder Camo, it retain the side bays for the Sidewinders with extended central bay for more weapons internally. Bishop fiddled his Smartphone to offline all connections and turn it off for in case before putting it to his pack and went to the XFA-36A already claded with flight gears strapped his getting muscular body, in the hangar were not just his plane, starboard behind it were the shiny markless ghost gray UCP F-3B Shinden II with one person relaxing in its cockpit, HAWX pilot 1st Lieutenant Lola Somers, "Have you called Senor Gutierrez lately, commander?" She called, "Nah he already left to Osan by now...might done something else for him", "Don't worry Commander, the invitation will get to him sooner or later"

Note

\- This fanfic were taking place around the late 2026 to early 2027, any Rhinos (Super Hornet) involved were Block III and Block IV (AC3 F/A-18I).

Extra note

\- Originally Phoenix is the Ace mercenary from Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat Xi. Latest picture shows white EF2000 with red and blue windsheer decor on the main wing and stabilizer. (Correction is due)

\- David Hamilton is the POTUS (President Of The United States) in the Ace Combat Assault Horrizon during the 'Homefront' mission on which he gives public emergency broadcast as follows :

"As I speak, our nation is under attack by a group of renegade Russian pilots. They are determined to kill our innocent civilians with their powerful air-launched weapon.

I have personally directed the Air Force and other military branches to intercept these criminals. They have orders to shoot them all down before they harm our country.

This is a dark and difficult day, but at the end, we will preserve. To the brave men and women defending us, godspeed"

According to Ace Combat Wikia, David Hamilton were actually two real life american politicians that never run for the presidential office, one of the two were the governor of Hernando County, Florida.

I put his name to the upcoming new Gerald R. Ford Class aircraft carrier like many other servicing US carriers.

Nimitz Class this fic

\- USS Carl Vinson

\- USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

\- USS John C. Stennis

In EndWar, USS George H.W. Bush were Destroyed in combat including the European Federatilns Joan de Arc II and the Russian Ulyanovsk by Air and or WMD attack.

Gerald R. Ford Class Fictional name ships (Appearance)

\- USS David Hamilton (Did I have to say it?)

\- USS Patricia Caldwell (Splinter Cell Conviction. In the game, she were the first female POTUS)

\- USS Robert Fowler (Sum of All Fears, in the movie he is the main character on the story alongside the russian president Nemerov. The PS2 game version is on but I never seen one on my local shelves, and if I do, heheh...I actually doubt its gameplay)

Gerald R. Ford on Upcoming chapters

\- USS Lyndon B. Johnson

\- USS Chester A. Arthur

\- USS John F. Kennedy

James Lawrence Class

\- USS David Beccera (End War)

\- USS David Bower (Splinter Cell Chaos Theory [still vague due to inconsistency of his appearance between SCCT and GR2])

\- USS Vincent Harling (Coming up but still worked on, probably on another AC-TC "Experimental" project fics)

\- Rena Hirose in this fic is my version of the original character from the Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere. In the original series she were the top young ace involved during the 2045 Corporate war, her physical appearance were probably far underage than average.

My version of her is that she were 32 and has mature attitude but due to healthy life routinity, she were still looked younger although not as the original (Much like the phenomenal Mrs. Masako Mizutani), she were also has normal physical health, unlike the original version which she couldn't take direct sun rays contact and must wear a special suit to protect her.

\- EA-16F is one of many proposed F-16 version, this version were the Electronic Warfare with same equipments to the Navy EA-18G, the flap model were taken from the AC3 F-16XF Gyrfalcon. One of other known F-16 based project is the attacker version designated A-16 but weren't taken consideration.

\- XFA-36A Game was the super fighter aircraft from AC3 which its base model were taken from the NASA Tailless experimental RC aircraft X-36. The X-36 has became the mainstream base for the hyped US 6th Generation fighter aircraft designs, especially to the XFA-36A Game itself, including in this fiction.

Writers question

\- If I put USS Vincent Harling, what class would be preferred?

Gerald R. Ford. Class or James Lawrence Class from HAWX?


	6. The Tiger Cage

Aomori, Japan

Misawa Air Base

October 21st 2026, 4.12am Local Time

The sky is clear, the sun is just a couple of hours before it vanished turning day to night. "Silhouette 1-1, you're go for Take-off, climb to angles 1 direction 2-8-0 pace to 862 knots and proceed to your preset steer points, winds to 140 at knots 4 with small to no gusts to 045"

"Roger, Silhouette 1-1 proceeding to Airborne"

Above the Sea of Japan

EC-5X "Silhouette", 15.000 Feet

5.22pm Local Time

Capt. Andrew Ross were waged for a deep raid mission, he lead a Team comprised of a female Royal British Army Sergeant 1st Class Alicia Winston, Kozak and Keating on a raid against the NKA prison camp known as 'The Tiger Cage'. Deployment was conducted by HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) drop via the experimental Stealth modified C-5D Galaxy. Team leader were armed with Gray QBZ-97 fitted with T-1 Aimpoint, 2x Magnifier and PEQ-15, with the rest of his team armed with Tan coloured K2C fitted with MOE Carbine Buttstock and the same optics with Andrew's T95, the 'Ghost lead' himself were outfitted with Emerson AOR2 field uniform and CADPAT vest and Alicia with her olive Flight uniform plus tan vest, the other two sergeants too geared with the same type and color of vest as alicia, only they rather wearing all plain clothes, Keating wore Beige jacket and cargo pants while Kozak wore blue jeans lower and gray college style hoodie jacket. The lights near the hatch suddenly making a clank noise at the same time the red light went of to green "Depressure process is complete, TOT six minutes before jumping, team! Opening the rear hatch!" The Ex-Master Chief said to his team as he hit a switch to open the rear hatch revealing the not too long before the sun faded from the horizon leaving only orange skies outside, "best we checked our gear before standing up, guys!" Alicia reminded others...

5.28pm Local Time

"ETA one Minute before jump off, people!"

The three operators were stand up and get near the mouth of the opened cargo bay where their team leader kneeled on the hatch door looking to the orange brown specks green and some gray far behind, the later were the Yellow sea which sees no battle yet. The op is simple, but one that not affordable to be ignored and it also could help their progress on liberating North korea once again, they've been briefed to find and render all chinese civilians evacuated from the Tiger Cage, after that they have to sweep clear the area for hostiles and intels, then hold the place until the South korean White skull brigade inbound to render the compound overtaken. Throughout history the place had no obvious strategic important whatsoever even until now that the only obvious reason to send 'Tiny' cell of four highly elite special operators deeper to the DPRK were nothing but the chinese civilians held there, if there were indication that Beijing want to get involved around then the Pentagon hoped this would stray US away from their business, Lt. Gen. Mitchell however who organize the op thought that it could be a good use as a Joint US-Korean FOB for the days ahead until Pyongyang has been liberated, if this idea were not thrown to the table, the only way the Ghost able to operate longer inside were to long and pain filled march from the outer skin of the nation deep into the heart of their enemy which would takes up day or weeks, add to the crap carrying heavy loads of full week food and medic supplies, tents, weapons and ammunitions, makeshift FOB were preferable but for mitchell its called 'Invading', he don't wanted to have his unit raid a village full of innocents and used it as their temporary base, the Ghosts were customary in just making troubles and mess around with enemy figting forces, other than that they totally and absolutely prefer someone else doing it. "One minute!" Commander Ross told his teammates raising right thumb up, Ross is stand in the front row alongside the brits with the rest two behind them. "I bet tiger cages at Brooklyn Zoo were more attractive than in this mission" Freddie trying to joke with Kozak "hmph...Tell me about it" he chuckled. Their commander looked onto his watch for a second to remind "Get ready, fifteen seconds!" And went silent as he looked to his watch "...Let's Go!" He then jumped from the plane followed by the Royal Army woman and the other two ghosts.

5.30pm

"Magic to Ghost Lead..." It was Col. Mike kim in the AFs E-3E, "South korean F-35A are on station north of the target camp", "Roger, Magic"

The four balaclava covered soldier had landed near the southern checkpoint (a supposedly same LZ Scott Mitchell landed during the 2007 Korean conflict on op. tiger cage), the four proceed to the empty checkpoint silently being ready for any convoy that might come by like intel had report. "Mrs. Alicia..I think it's time for you to deploy the drone around here high height" Andrew whose also wearing Protective Goggles strapped to his black SFOD-D Protec Helmet ask the woman wearing tan OpsCore and Oakley Sunglasses just like the other two which she then pick her drone holstered on her back and throw it upside, he then told freddie to cover kozak from the camp while he planting the motion sensor equipped Claymore wall mines strapped with small chunk of C4 on the opened checkpoint gate. Any vehicles passed it will be then useful to prevent another vehicles come by, since the explosion will enough to what kozak just said as built the small man-made non-bullet-used crater during the op, the kind of mouthful quote that giggles the rest of the team. Once the charge are in place accidentally the same time Alicias drone spotted a truck inbound to the camp with ETA thirty seconds, the team retreat carefully to more undisclosed position to watch how kozak built a crater without a single artillery barrage, a moments later..."that's the truck!" Exclaimed Alicia whose hear the truck coming, she readied her suppressed 9mm handgun aimed to the mine for in case. Few seconds later they could see the truck as well as eight grunts behind with all onboard doesn't had a chance to spot anything unusual as the truck exploded, barrel rolled and stopped in upside position as it about to completely pass the gate, a tire went fly over to the ghosts lead nearly hit the Former SEAL whose like nothing had happened ordered the team to move out, "Are you okay, Captn?" She ask "I'm fine, mrs." He replied plain like nothing happened, "That tyre that just flew over to you", "I know" the captain end the conversation with her and went to the camp entrance where it was guarded by four guards armed with local made AK-47, fortunately they got a cover behind a pile of rocks with only two operatives could attack the guards. "Freddie, Kozak...they all yours!" Freddie nodded to his commander, they peek on each side of the rocks and readied Full-Auto mode K2C to the guards in front of the gate and in just less than a second they rained the guards head with the NATO 5.56mm rounds, "They're just a memoria" freddie report. "Alright, good. Kozak, I want you to take keating further ahead to the HVT facility lookout for any chinese on your way, Alicia I want you to go with me scavenge any intel about the new area under construction inside", the raid team moved to the entrance where they saw a man rushed to an MG placement left of the entrance, behind it were a way lead to the area supposedly planned to be expanded. The Brits take him down fast just as that guy about to charging the placed gun, "that must be the way to the expanded area, let's go. You two youngsters proceed", "Roger, Checking AR" kozak responded, he scan the barracks ahead of them for hostages but found none of them except six guards around it waiting to ambush the two american army, wisely the two youngster split and circling the four barracks ambushing the ambush in less than a minute with Keating (who takes left) finally went empty finishing his seventh kill. He reload another Magpul STANAG mag to his K2C while letting kozak lead the way, on their way are another checkpoint to the courtyard, kozak pick his M67 and thrown it to the checkpoint, it explodes and by it they could hear of more than one men groaning and also subsequently collapsed the checkpoint. With both youngsters have their Assault Rifle pointed to the ruble as they went close by, "Found a candy bar, captn?" Kozak ask his commander, "Roger...they got so far only a heliport. She said the whole area had enough space for two Mi-26s", "Hmm...interesting.." Freddie teases as he battling another ten NKA grunts with AN-94 (a rifle that isn't within NKA service), "I can hear a gunfire in your position, boys. Cut the chatter, focus, hold there cos we'll coming to ya" the former SEAL end up the chatter and rushed to help kozak...or to prevent the two youngster grab all kills, "left a few for us, will ya? eh?" she said intentionally to tease around, "hahahaaaa.." now the former SEAL tease her back as they reached the empty barracks that just cleared. By the time the four got reunited the younger has just take out eight grunts with the remaining two retreated...right side...a path ahead on the right "sorry ma'am, the remaining two of ten were retreated" freddie report as he and the brooklyn raised ruskie stand up from their prone position on the rubles when they hear multiple footsteps behind, "ouukhaay...uum...let's leave the ruins and move out instead" the brits spoke up just as their team lead about to open up his mouth for command.

The quartet of army move to the path on the right where Ross shot a guard inside the guard post, "Hold this area, there might be an intel inside" andrew told as he enter the guard post to find a red envelope contain nothing but money in North korean currency, thus he leave it alone and back to confront the NKA spec ops in black upper attire and unusually black PASGT attached with NOD rail but with olive green pants like guards these western soldier has taken down, and instead armed with local kalashnikov, these North korean Commandos were armed with Holosight Swedish Ak5 rifle, the firefight take less than a minute against the Elite of NKA. "I assume they're backed by a PMC I've encountered before at Hoeryong" freddie spoken his thought to the team, the woman in flight uniform look him saying she is not believe about the involvement of a firm, but then again..."NKA doesn't operate NATO weapons, yet they won't implement EOTech sigh...lookout!" Keating warned them of incoming fire, from the same SF unit and same HWS attached Ak5. Again the former Master Chief fire back to the hostile hit him in the chest, throat and forehead, another two of them coming in trying to stop the group of soldier with skull patch on their team leads shoulder, but...it's instead the team leader who took the two down "Press on, team". The team move ahead while collecting one STANAG ammo from the SF corpse and reload with it while keeping the used mag with them, ahead of them are another guard post which through the Augmented Reality technology (Magnetic field view mode) spotted two hostile that just retreated when fighting two guy who teases about the Tiger cage at Brooklyn zoo and the Brooklyn kid with Russian Mom and Dad. So as the two regulars trying to attack the quartet, the Brits is the one who slept them. Kozak then rushed inside to look after an intelligence with her watching from outside, but instead found three corpses, the other one body they found are american man. "The dead press?" Kozak ask, Andrew and Freddie know nothing about it as he doesn't match the two reporters died before the open war, nothing they could do but shrug can't tell and instead fight the incoming enemies from the other gate and from the facility ahead on their left, "we'll let the NIS found the answer about that corpse, kozak. Continue with the mission, engage" kozak and alicia helped the two from their concealed position, "Somebody need to get to the chinese on the left. I'm ready for that call, sir" the girl ask for go order which is not granted until the area ahead are secured. Eventually the go code were given but for kozak and freddie with alicia stay to cover the gate with andrew "Magic, we request video feed from the allied F-35 on our target facility", "Thunder 1-1 have eyes on your location...you got enemy reinforcement inbound from the north and the White Skulls from the south both in less than a minute ETA, hang in there", again the youngster battling against seven NKA Grunts together to the facility and eventually prevail, report they found numerous chinese civilians held in a garage and ten more in the HVT facility (same building Scott Mitchell meet Maj. Gen. Sung), "Captn, we got all of them, waiting orders" freddie spoke up while he thought of going upstairs to the roof of the building across via iron stairs, "we got a company and tanks...", he heard a roaring jet engine distant north which he know from Col. Kims report...the ROKAFs F-35A "secure them there...we'll coming to ya". As the duo Yankee/Brits retreated to the facility, an explosion occurs far outside the gate, "Ghosts this Thunder 1-1...four enemy armors has been destroyed...I have eyes on Black Hawks inbound from the south", "Copy that Thunder 1-1, thank you for the support".

Kozak locked the door of both garage and HVT facility before they were completely regrouped and fortified their position near the garage with their guts and tactics covering the LZ for two MH-60s, "Ghost Lead this is Yellow Jacket...we got your position, stand by". The enemy reinforcement breached the facility with the chinese prisoners bumped on their list of top objective. So as the White Skulls reached the rooftop of the building, these sub-unit of the 707th Special Mission Battalion are the south korean equivalent of the US Ghosts. The four men embarked on the rooftop were in Crye CADPAT Combat Uniform strapped with Multicam vest, covered with OpsCore helmet as well as armed with Multicam M415 attached HK416, people could mistaken them as the Polish GROM or the SEAL Team 6 until they saw a South korean flag patched on their shoulder, "Gecko to Captain...we're topside coming down to you...it's a honor to get touch with you again" the Skull lead greet the ghosts as he and other one strolling the stairs left of the building occupied by the rest of two Skulls. "Gecko?" Andrew a bit surprised, but happy it was his friend back when the US dealing with Gen. Paik and Col. Wolde back then, "It's been a long time since we're dealing with Wolde", "yeah...well, let's save the warm chat until we finished this" replied gecko in surprisingly for the other three ghosts...rather scottish accent. The South korean and American teams fight the P90 Armed DPRK commandos in fierce 6 minutes, alicia got hit in her right waist and dropped, she check her wound to see no wound at all, only losing her 9mm Sidearm, "Hold on!" Kozak rushed to only help her get back up, he also pick his Magpul Mag for her dried rifle which in turn she give her scavenged mag and the two back to fight. The 2nd team (whose had same attire as Geckos Team, only they armed with tan TA11 K2C) disembarked on the same LZ Gecko put his feet at and stayed topside where there sandbags could covered them, "I think we need CH-53 to evacuate the prisoner" freddie spoken his thought, "Can't risk a big lady yet, fred" the former Sailor replied as he keep shooting his Chinese made Bullpup rifle to the incoming hostiles, the fighting continues for additional two minutes even with the help of two Black Hawks as the enemy forces sent were nearly a Battalion sized, but...like the prayer that wasn't asked yet..."Warwolf 1-2, Cleared for attack run" Magic for the second time let out his voice referring to one that the former Navy ever heard about, but it's not the one he thought "Ohohohoow Yeah!" it was Maj. Jose Gutierrezs voice whose flying A-20 Razorback escorted by Thunders F-35A subsonically inbound from south fired their JSOWs to the enemy positions outside the camp, this of course crumbled the morale of the oncoming enemy forces behind the bad lucked troops, "Good shot, Amigo!" Jose taunt Thunder 1 as the two jets went back to Osan. For the rest of seven fighting forces trapped inside...whose not favored to be let free as the two Black hawks blocked the exit, surrender to the allied US/Korean SOCOM. Geckos Team approached and secured the surrendering enemies after scanned them with their Augmented Reality, one of them said like "you will pay for this...", "sooner" Gecko replied that guy as he and the 2nd White skull Team escort the enemies aboard an MH-60 taken to Suwon. freddie unlocked the prisoners and trying to calm the worried men and women regarding the shooting outside, "you still need to recover any intel from the chinese" Gecko sum up idea as he and his team members handshaked his old friend while the three teams under Geckos old friend searched for intel inside the facility and the garage as well recover the three bodies found previously, "Magic...now we definitely need a Medium transport helicopter" alicia request what freddie has request, "Copy that, they're enroute from Suwon ETA 2 mikes". Now...the New York raised russian, the Zoo teaser, and their field commander searched the prisoner for intel or weapons but gladly they found nothing, after all..the type of intel they were after were Verbal-Intel that fortunately provided by the chinese held in the HVT facility. Since the intel they share deemed too sensitive, andrew decided to hand them over to Lt. Gen. Parker whose now at Osan.

2 minutes later

"This is Pioneer 1, ready for inbound wrap", "roger that Pioneer 1, LZ are marked on your HUD", two CH-53 inbound from the southwest about to touchdown on the camps heliport where kozak and freddie waiting nearby with the hostages, the Stallions rear hatch were opened for quick mounting as well as deploying six more ghost operatives. The hostages were taken to one of two Sea Stallion ready to extract them after the two helicopters finished dismount the supplies for the forces near the enemy lines, as well as five of six Urban UCP Stalker Mk.2 Uniformed ghosts deployed forward, they were Maj. Ferguson, 1st Lt. Wild Fang, 1st Lt. Pepper, Sgt. 1st Class Jenny Kim (Daughter of Mike Kim), Staff Sgt. 30k, and Staff Sergeant Matilda Li in combination of ACUPAT pants and her Track jacket. Now...the Tiger cage is temporarily changed dramatically, from the non-important prisoners for defectors to be the korean version of FOB Utah nearby Shah I-kot, Afghanistan, it would housed several more soldiers inside the DPRK, selected units only, special forces.

Gulf of Aden

USS Kings Mountain

Obviously the place for soldiers weapon, the upgraded weapons according to todays DoD Standard, there still lots of AR-15s stored in, the long servicing combat rifle of the US Military since the Vietnam war, but none were Colt made anymore, the Colt not made AR-15s for military anymore but Law enforcer, more to advanced version offering better accuracy and range.

Koji and Cho-eun were there fiddling their HK416, both has two of it reconfigured, one were with 10.5 in barrel were done already, they were switching the other with the longer 14.5 in, their hand wisely rolling the screwdriver around the gas tube. But weren't just them, there were Elsa filling in the fabric box of her usual Mk.48 and Kyle working his XMX with M320, he attached the SpecterDR optic. The four actually were blowned with the death of their squad mate, but nonetheless they get their grip little by little, their replacement were coming two days ahead.

11.30pm

As for Ross, his disassembled and polished QBZ-97 were a present from his friend in taiwan, a personal use, he modified it extensively in 2022 by himself with result no differ from the 95 series but at least its more durable, accurate and longer lifespan so he can use it the whole tour or two before he got to reworked it himself at home, mind deceiving contrary for so many peoples get accustomed with believes chinese stuffs broke down easily, in terms of firearms he never heard of people injured or killed or whining his Norinco gun failed to fire, in fact chinese Type 95 rifles saw huge export profit used by many other countries until now.

Extra note

\- 'Silhouette' is the stealth transport aircraft which is basically my own fusion of the C-5D Galaxy but with the stealthy touch of the V-125 Valkyrie (EndWar).

\- Alicia Winston is the main character of other Namco games 'Time Crisis 3'. My version of her is she were British Army sniper with experiences in Khazakstan 2012 and assault to russia in HAWX 2, she were lent to the USSOCOM. In the upcoming chapters involving her, she wore the same dressing to the original game but with extra Crye combat pants colored in british camo patern (Matching environment), OpsCore SF helmet (Matching environment, mishmash camo spray paints or plain paint), rag covering her face and Oakley glasses linked to AR.

\- Tiger cage is the prison camp in the PS2 version Ghost Recon 2, in the mission with the same name, Mitchell is tasked to recover a prisoner from there, the prisoner is discovered to be technical advisor to the main protagonists nuclear program but imprisonned after deteriorating relationship, preventing him from defecting.

The change of the prison compound in this fic is as mentioned, Helipads allows for two russian made heavy transport helicopters to land in.

\- Col. Tesfaye Wolde is the leader of the antagonist faction in Ghost Recon Desert Storm, he and his other army remnant were captured after the destruction of Armored convoy column intended as escort for his flee attempt off Eritrea


	7. Open War Part 2

Langley, Virginia

October 21st 2026, 8.09am

"For the second time, huh?"

"I know its unbelievable, Commander Bishop..."

Will's new and higher ranked friend, Brigadier General Nathaniel Goudie, sighed before he continued with the real business.

"I just got called from Major General Mitchell last night, he said he'll take over Brown's 'Thundering Nerds' at the Horn of Africa", "So Colonel Brown will be here?" Bishop asked, "Tomorrow, Commander!" Goudie replied plainly before sipping his caffe latte as he looked from the ATC building two black Forward swept wing fighters about to land at the Airforce Base housing the 1st Fighter Wing. "Did Mitchell said anything about me?" Bishop asked the commander of the 15th Special Ops Battalion of JSF, "Yeah he did. Brown, Salvatore and Dersnah would stay here and make sure the FLA stay away from the Mexico City. You Commander...regarding the sighting of that..." Goudie used his hands to describe huge things, "that huge flying pieces of shits... A car is waiting for you, you'll go to DC, someone wished to chat with you", Will slightly grin and nodded with that remark before he back to his formal tone on saying "Yes sir!", then leave inside. Were my eyes playing foul on me that day he asked himself, is what I saw there were for real he thought.

The brigadier general remark on something very big, a big airplane to be exact but far huge than even the russian An-225.

And its true.

Friday August 14th 2026

It was then confirmed, just now confirmed since the killing of the colombian president Andrea Celaya at bogota, now others had already happened at Bolivia, Chili, Venezuela and Peru. By that time the new joint opposition were risen up against its neighboring country before stepping forward to the United States, hung up the new flag and new name, 'Federacion el Latina America'. Within a week the federation wiped out not only fighters, its everyone loyal to their former leader, Paraguay were fallen few days after, Argentina and Brazil still held their foothold on most of their lands, fighting endlessly against the endlessly coming attacks. Honduras, Cuba and quarter of Mexico were unfortunate to stand a chance.

Sucre, Bolivia

August 30th 2026, 6.30am Local Time

There were three soldiers, holding a 7.62 FN FNC with RDS that aimed to the rounded wife and husband protecting in fear their sole boy no older than nine, innocent, confused, they didn't do anything harmful, nor they stand on anybodies path on whatever their cause was, but why this? There weren't just three soldiers wore olive green OpsCore, dressed in tan old school uniform strapped with black US Tactical Assaulter Vest, there were also two more men in same strapping but not with helmet, one bare headed and the other wear a red beret, with insignia on their shoulder signifying the high mark within the federation of latin american military. The bare head officer picked his sidearm on his waist silently to extent none of the soldiers noticing it, the husband know one of them is gonna be shot at, he moved slightly so its only him appeared clearly for clean and cold kill.

A bang resonated the currently empty urban where there's been a sighting of shooting between cartel and small elite soldiers protecting a VIP, birds scared away with the loud thump from the sidearm fire nearby.

One bullet from the SG P226 were launched out to the chest of the husband, his wife and son were surely dreaded by the horror in their very own face, their supposedly guardian were laid down the dirt road of the market. Its not enough, for normal soldiers the husband and his family were just a commoners, supposedly left alone, they're not a treath to whatever they doing here, they were just wantes to avoid crossfires, but for the shooter, they're traitor, they were not the one stand behind for the Federation, whatever they do is not a single one for the new latin america superpower that currently developing fast, and that is not this general not liking even one small bite. The P226 were shifted towards the wife, even in her 33 or so she still as beautiful as what commonly aged 25 to 30, but that didn't stop him, all he could think were perfect powers of his new banner.

Again the same thump were thundering around, then the general that about to kill the husband's love fallen to the ground, eyes were still opened with a blood dirtied hole between his eyes on his forehead, the four soldier looked around to where the shot came from, it was to the empty building with broken windows on the other side they found the young man around 32, he bears no insignia shoulder by his same tan dress with same vest and pouches but the three soldier were backed in shock and fear to the young man who shoot the FN45 pistol very precisely that the dead man look like died without noticing the last exact moment hits him, "Commander Aspar!" The beret man noted the young man walk hastily in anger to the rounding four, dead stop face to face with eyes straight to the beret man, "Commander...I...", "Three of you leave to your base, Now!" Aspar ordered the soldier while still looking in angst to the dead man's second in command, and just in sudden his vision blurred showing world tilted sideways, then pain linger on his cheek for long, the blur were gone, he realize the commander just hit him, "You pathetic! You cannot stop your...Puta Boss...from killing innocent peoples" the young man growled to the older man proned to ground with left cheek painted red from the, "Ah...I forgot...you're among many of those can't sacrifice your life against your wrongful boss. A coward hoping to grasp power and..." His word were cut to stop as suddenly the bright blue skies above him were darkened, shadowing the entire market streegs from the giant flying fortress above him, the Aigaion (AC6 P-1112) with its four Kottos class escorts, the mother and her son dropped their jaw by the five flying giants seeing right by their own eyes, the Federation's wildcard superweapons easily and effortlessly win them many recent wars against those not along with the new power bears a flag of two tone dark red and dark blue with rounding stars on the center, lent by someone, commander aspar does not know whose that someone, nor the leader of the federation have any clue about it. When the shadow had stop blanketed the four they heard a faint rumble from the downtown, faint helicopter rotors rumble that getting closer, faster, and expected by the young man. Soon the Mi-55 Locust with Federation flag on its tail appeared upon them floating forward right above the market, passing above it were four jet powered Tu-3 UAVs leaving four trails that stays up for short time, two soldiers armed with the 7.62 FNC coming out from the opened left hatch followed by another red beret man, big muscled colonel with tan skin come to him with expression say he has something he want aspar to know now, and that was his presence is requested at the chilean Atacama desert where their sophisticated command center stand up, unexpected to him that the big man announce to him "Now you're also the youngest Brigadier Generale in the world, first ever in the Latina federacion" the colonel smiled to him, "Oh..." Promotion didn't indulge him at all, all that ranks or making name is not why he stick with the federation, put aside to that "Colonel Rio, I want you to take her and the kid to Chiloe before we go to the Command center", the big man looked to the young mother and her son stop dead before they can leave, he getting to understand with that request when he saw a dead civic and general laid before them, "Si generale".

The armored helicopter boarded the new brigade general and the surviving family left the red faced colonel with two dead bodies besides him, he dreaded with what's before him, felt humiliated..

And guilty.

Somewhere inside North Korea

FOB Partridge/Tiger Cage

October 22nd 2026, 7.24am Local Time

Nice morning, Blue skies and serene Green views at where the Enemy forces trying to snatch the Chinese civilians came from, above the northern gate are the Decision maker for Team Hunter whose enjoying a coffee and chicken sandwich, beside him were a blonde japanese looking woman in UCP Stalker Mk.2 field uniform with nickname Wild Fang (1st Lt. Rebecca Vazquez), she enjoying the same meal and coffee as him. Almost like kozak...she were raised in Mexico by her parents who were japanese. The Tiger Cage were now temporarily rechristened to Forward Operating Base Partridge, named after the captain of the USS Clarence E. Walsh that killed by the North korean missile triggered by an american, the FOB has been altered with ladders and stairs attached to pillars connecting the walls for patrols, as well additional guard post built by sandbags above all two gates and access via two stairs. The facility where Mitchell meet sung were used as the Command center, garage were used as the armory, the barracks? It still remain as the barracks, unused facility were left alone except with security systems in case there were intruders making the whole place were unforgiving for anyone trying to break into it unless they got EMP weapons or something else. "I can't believe we're plunged for the first time onto the Third Korean War" she put a slight smile and blowed a whiff from ther cold, terms of Third Korea War were funny to her somehow, the second one is where Mitchell stopped a bombing attempt at Hamhung reservoir, and many more when there's large bounty on Jung's head, yet now america facing another civil war, nonetheless no hint of another Cold War.

Meanwhile in the armory...

Maj. Fergusons favourite song blared partial section of the room, "I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot the deputy". It was Geckos MP3 Player connected to a Small Speaker he found inside the camp, the MP3 owner is cleaning his 416 10in carbine accompanied by Kozak, Freddie and Alicia who cleaned her and Andrews rifle.

"Major Cedric! LT Rebecca!" Coming from the Command center is Capt. Ross with Tablet PC on his right hand accompanied by a near bald rather chinese looking korean Captain Park Hye-Sung whose also called Gecko said "Morning, Major" to Cedric as he and she meet them. "What is it, Captn?", "you sir had a new tasking order". Additional patrols were added employed Joint Strike Forces that coming two hours after the chinese extraction.

Inside the ComCent are all Ghosts and White Skull Brigades watching the 3 minutes duration video of Attack in various locations with all of them watched scenes of giant aircrafts vaporized EFEC and JSFs Fighter Jets instantly, rendered them shocked in that particular part. As the show is over, question began emerged from their thoughts "umm...what's the codename given by The Air Standardization Coordination Committee of those big planes?" Matilda asked, "Big?! You called it Big!?" 30 quipped, Ross replied "Its not the ASCC who named it and...they don't exist anymore or if they do still exist...I bet they know nothing about it, Li. 'Aigaion'..that was the name Intel able to dig. I want none of you ask where they built, or whose fund it. That...we all do not know. Don't ask me how to take it down either, that answer is not provided by the Top..but its the next mission would provide one", then came the question by Gecko "so what's the Op? We're ready even now", the former SEAL paused for a second and sighed disbelieve with the tape "...so, people...Lieutenant General mitchell tasked us a Recon Op. Separately simple, there's mole in moscow with info that small numbers of non-critical and critical reports regarding the new sighting were spread to russian allied nations including pyongyang. Ghosts been assigned to left FOB Partridge at 1750 hours, infiltrate for any kind of intel inside the gulag near...uu...Whatever Kamchatsky, General is about to appraised president Nikanor about this but we don't have time to wait for greenlight. Deployment in RHIB via V-25 Goshawk Eight miles from the beachhead and continue on water to the designated waypoint when reach Mile one. Same time with the ghosts reach the Mile one, White skulls will Infiltrate from the designated observation position to the designated area within the Camp 22 and look for intel as well. These location were reported to provide intelligences about the Aigaions Systems and defenses, as well its four escort planes, Any questions?", all were silent with determination looking, their next mission is politically dangerous especially for the ghosts there, Russia were getting closely with US as well as the european since the election at 2026, the first one furiated the russians badly, especially the military. "We're ready for this" 30 make a noise to the former SEAL, "Alright ladies and gentlemen...get some rests. Make sure you have a enough Breakfast now, and don't forget for Lunch at 1300 and 1600 hours, because you're going to needed it" the men and women of two SFs leave the ComCent and back to their activities. "Have you ever seen anything like that, Major?" Ross asked Cedric, "Nah...not in real life, only in movies. That thing is...too gigantic to fly, had no idea how they built that shit", "You think it some kind of Flying aircraft carrier or something?", "Could be yeah, could be no, could be anything. Anyway, since we're about to leave do they got any replacement here?", "Yeah, MSOCs could make a good use of this base during our mission, could compensate the lack of us", the two walk together to the canteen near the barracks, with Gecko joined them on the way for breakfast with menu of Potato porridges, chicken, beef sandwiches and choice of energy drinks, beers and juices. The JSF were deployed in twelve men for patrol around the FOB and the nearby village that liberated by them two nights ago, villages that sympathetic to the legitimate government forced to allow the coup occupation, there the US socialize with locals, buying food supplies and some merchandise. There was no war today.

No war at all yet.

North Pacific sea

2 Miles from Petropavlovsk Kamchatky, Russia

7.30pm Local time

The MV-25 were hovering forward very low, the cargo ramp were greasing the water, the RHIB were slide out behind with all eight men and women onboard already. "Clear!" The cargo crew notified, the twin engined tilt-rotor aircraft turned left going away southeast with its cargo accelerate towards Kamchatka.

They got an encrypted message coming in.

"Commander Kiril has been informed about the situation, he dispatched support units to assist your mission. They're already standing by near the beachhead where you're to approach, change of plans : RV with Zoya 1"

Captain Ross, the RHIB driver paced up little bit the boat towards the beach ahead. A ping sound occurred from device strapped behind their Urban UCP SPCS (Soldier Plate Carrier System) to their BDU turned visually invisible, Hunter Team led by Maj. Ferguson wearing Stalker Mk.4, same with Hee-eun while Captain Ross had his team Keating and Wild Fang with Emerson AOR2 except Matilda whose in all Black Track stuits and Winston in gray jeans and her hunting jacket, each of them except Ross have their CompM4 attached SR-3 Vikhr aimed towards the beachhead.

Somewhere at Bering Sea

RFS Kuznetsov

"Control to 821 and 827, switch to Oka Nieba control"

Two grayish white MiG-29Ks were taken off from Kuznetsov aircraft carrier toward Kamchatka, it keep climbing until reach angles 10, currently twice above the clouds. "821 to Oka Nieba, we're awaiting orders" said the lead plane pilot Col. Dimitri Sokov, "This is Oka Nieba, maintain your course" he replied, currently fly an Su-34 with Jamming Tubes and an Electronic pod under its centerline pylon, its defended by eight Jammer tubes equipped Su-27Ms armed with six R-74ERs and six R-77VV-AEs. The Fulcrums were each armed with four R-74s, two R-77s and four Kh-25Ts that able to be operated by either the flight officer or the weapons officer, the reason both pilots flown without the backseat occupied.

On the beachhead

The ten ghosts have uncloacked and Rendezvous with ten Gruppa alfa operatives armed with AS-VALs and the EXP2 Holo sight, these men were fitted with Splitter Jungle uniform, Russian made Vest and like the ghost too they're covered in Balaclava, Helmets and Augmented Reality. "Anyone in charge of this unit?" The leader ask in typical russian accent, one of the ghost in all Mk. 2 come up to him "I am", "I'm sorry that I can't tell you my identity, I'm codenamed Zoya 1" by that he extend his right hand to the american which then they shook hand "They got me as the Ghost lead, sir. What's the plan?", "We've been briefed by our commander about your plan, its politically too risky to let you amerikanski operate outside that old abandoned gulag alone" the russian pointed westward to the large Gulag complex, he then continued "We'll combat patrol the surrounding area while two of my men guide you inside, you might tell them what to do and what your plan once inside, codename of them will be Zoya 6 and Zoya 7", "Alright sir, let's do it"

Gangneung, South Korea

Gangneung Air Base

7.30pm

Two F-22A Raptors has taken-off catching up three A-20 Razorbacks.

"Warwolf 1 airborne" said a woman.

"Warwolf 2 airborne. Haven't meet you before, may I have your introduction, ma'am?" Jose, who has long been promoted to Major ask his flight leads callsign, "Lieutenant Colonel Stephanie Halverson, callsigned Siren, Guts. Nice to fly with you" which then he playfully replied "Wee-oo Wee-oo Wee-oo...here comes an air raid from Lieutenant Colonel Stephanie Halverson" which triggered the Razorback flight lead Coyote 1 interrupted "Its air raid from Coyote flight, Warwolf 2. Its good to have you tonight with us Steph", "Ohh yeahh, its been a long time. Let's got to our cruise altitude" Siren replied to her friend back in air force training. Coyote flight were originally fly F-22A stealth air superiority fighter, a plane that also seen action by them during the NRF attack at Miami, Florida back in 2015, wing no.2 were shot down in that day but the pilot recovered by the Coastguard. Now the Raptor flown by Coyotes were re-opted to the A-20 Razorback, the complete version of AX-20 Razorback Stealth CAS fighter project unveiled around 2020-2021, like the A-10 its heavy armored able to withstand constant attacks and keep on with the mission. "Alright guys and gals, remember to maintain radio silence before crossing the DMZ" Siren reminded as they're on their cruise altitude, the Warwolves got themself up around angles 20 while the Coyotes around angles 10, both flying northward with Hoeryong as their destination, a place where there is a Prison complex staged as the White skulls current Recon AO

Camp 22 southern village

Eight white skulls were hidden behind bushes surrounding the village, to make it worse for the north korean coup forces there, the white skulls were cloacked with optical camouflage which means anyone within and around the village doesn't know about what would happened, they simultaneously then fired their Suppressed weapon onto eight guards outside and inside the village area, the eight guards were in nowhere to be found out. Eight white skulls then stop cloacking, revealing their Holosight and ATPIAL attched CTR K2C that used to shoot the guards. "Commence diversion" Gecko ordered, a seconds later a quad-rotors mini-drone airborne in front of the group, it went to 20 feet height and float above the village gathering intelligence on the enemy strength which are eight NKA Grunts, three of them were indoor overwatching the remaining five harassing the villagers, "Okay...go for diversion" Gecko ordered, the drone then went 3 miles northward and lay at the side of the sandy road intentionally to explode itself creating the diversion for the White skulls to raid the village as discreet as possible, but then what something called 'didn't getting any better' turned onto something deemed 'perfect' for them, "sir, got a truck three miles ahead inbound to the village mounted by ten soldiers", their commander just smirked before said "...you do know what I'm thinking", the drone went idle for a couple seconds until the truck got near it, which by so...the drone set to explode, the truck too exploded and flipped over to the ricefield on the side of the road, occupants were killed and the villagers went panicked by it, another mini drone got float above the village just in time when one of the north korean ordered the three of the five to went outside examine what's going on to the truck. "Move according to plan"

Back to Kamchatky

Inside the Petropavlovsk Gulag

The long abandoned 120x120 meters concreted wall complex has around nine barracks on the northwestern side of the complex, southwest of the complex were two large field used as Helicopter landing area complete with the control tower attached to the executive building south of it, and the courtyard on its right, to the northeastern of the complex (east of the barracks) are one huge facility that told by the Zoya lead its used as facility for the prisoners back then, ie. canteen, workplaces and bathing place, south of the facility were the detention center. There are entrance gate to the west which although none of these complex fitted with even one security system the presence of Blatnois were high according to report shared by the Spetsnaz Sniper , however, there are tunnel system that led one of three wells within the complex, apart from that is unknown.

The eight ghosts guided by two GRUs has reached the tunnel fork led to either three wells, "typically we're to split up here, which way you would pick?" Zoya 6 asked, he and 7 aren't differentable by the american, but 7 were a female operator identificable when seeing her beautiful eyes plus she carried Saiga 12 shotgun while 6 carried a rubberheaded battering ram and strangely a non-russian employed MP7 with Kobra Reflex sight. "Okay, fellas...take the right, I'll take the left" Ferguson said to Ross, they then split up to their own path.

10.000 feet above the complex

"Molot 1 to 821, we're approaching to your position"

Two Flankers approached the Carrier borne Fulcrum squadron, these are the Flankers from the eight planes escorting the Su-34. "821 to Molot 1, would like to lead the wing?" Asked Sokov, "No, you lead it", the two flankers made four right finger formation with the fulcrums. "Oka nieba to 821 and Molot 1, we counted three miles twelve unmarked MiG-29M2s heading towards your position from west Mach 1, altitude 8.000 feet. You must lure them away from the Gulag", "Understood" Molot 1 replied. The four twin-engined headed towards the sea at exact Mach 0.8 hoping to keep attract the incoming fighters, "Do not fire until fired upon, let see what they're up to". Within a minute the four got themself 10 miles from the coast where they circling around and intentionally "to patrol squadron inbound to our position, we're on night maritime patrol, confirm your status". There is no response from the unmarked fighters, instead the four planes got radar lock warning on them followed seconds later by missile alert, "They're firing, clear to engage" sokov exclaimed, he saw the missile coming to his idle flown plane southwest at high speed which eventually missed by inches by incorrect angels, it will be commonly missed further from him somewhere if he get faster. He found the other three friendlies made it alive from the opening attack in fact they already fired back on the attacker head on, he made an initiative by bank right seeing if there's some of them going after him, and he found four about two miles from him while the rest battling his allies. The former wingman of Col. Denisov have his plane head on with the four unmarked fighters in full afterburner and switched his R-74s on stand by, he intend to take out two first with simultaneous missile fires and engage the rest of his pursuers gunpoint from any direction, he got a lock tone and seconds later he press the trigger and launched two Heatseeking missiles to the incoming enemies head on, both missiles streaked through the nose of the enemy planes, fireball were jutted out behind like welcoming Sokov as he passed head on supersonic speed, Sokov then went vertically upward witnessing through his Night Vision switched Visor the other two had little black smoke trailing from the exhaust which he blame for the wreckage of the two he take out.

Back to the dark gulag

"Get your AR online" Fergusons voice occured

Hunter team and Zoya 6 switched to Magnetic vision enabled them spotted seven soldiers inside the 3x5 little dimmed room with two long desks on the right of the room with three modern computers in form of Slim monitors without CPU around, three of them sitting in front of each computers doing some kind of digital paperworks, one man right in front of the door looked to the window overlooking to the courtyard, the other three were reading books picked from the bookshelf on the left of the room.

Executive building

"All marked, standing by" Kozak said, he were on the left of the door outside behind him were 30 and Pepper with Vikhr readied and his Ballistic scope attached SV-98 laid on his back, the ally GRU were ready with his sledgehammer on his left hand and suppressed MP7 on his right hand, behind him were the 'Decision maker'. "Now" kozak whispered followed by a swung of the hammerhead smashing the door to force open and surprised the seven officers inside by additional pop of flashbang before they got phased to other realm by the five men raiding in, "We clean it up nice and pretty" 30 remark "like my room" he added again, the other four including Ross team laughed light, "Hmm...Home sweet home, eh?" Matilda added, "Anyway, we clean the closets here as well...god my, it stink like cat poop" she added again.

"Eww...please don't..." Alicia interupted

"Oops...I'm very sorry" Li apologized playfully

Detention center

Ross and the other four were inside the blood painted detention center, a fresh blood were out from six soldiers killed by them, AKS-12s scattered near the bodies, "You got the sugar, dad?" Ross asked for intel, "I got my cousins at newark looking for it" Ferguson reply, they speak abnormally to making sure no one knows what they're up to.

Kozak and Zoya 6 browse the computer for intel, Ferguson looked for files in the shelf, 30 and Pepper guard the hallway. The building were entirely and silently cleared of hostiles, towers were not operational and every room inside has bodies lying around lifeless. Hunter team initially emerged from the well in the empty detention center, they then silently assault the building on their left and thanks to their silenced weapons plus cloacking device, they cleared the building entirely without being alerted. Ross team got emerged on the well inside the heavily guarded but lightly dimmed Facility north of the Detention building, they coordinated their attack firstly against hostiles on the darker area before finishing the last on the dimmed places including taking out every lighting sources, by then they look for intels with help of NV tech on their AR which unfortunately non-present. So they went to detention building south of the building they're in where they killed another Carbine AK-12 wielding soldiers in surprise attack, only to found nothing but long been blood painted walls on every corner of the building.

"Ghosts, Zoya 1. Our Fairy give us a tale of evil serpent around their bed, they have elixirs". Ferguson knows that it actually refer to Blatnoi soldiers on the northwestern barracks with intel inside, "Of how many are they?" the decision maker asked, "they're the only left", "Captain hook, can you greet them?" he asked Ross who replied "we'll be there"

Back in Hoeryong

While five North korean grunts busy with the truck, the cloacking White skulls discreetly search every buildings for documents, so far they found a laptop and four folders with lots of papers inside and nothing else. "Okay, retreat. Mission complete" Gecko ordered, each White skulls operative cooperated on hiding the three bodies of soldier guarding inside to the bushes they overwatched the village which saving a lot of times searching for intels. As all of them pass the fences between the Camp 22 and the wilderness, three planes passed them at subsonic speed towards the village where they climbed and turned eastward, then multiple big explosions appeared northeast far from the village. The near-perfectly invisible south korean troops looked the three planes above them circling around the village before beginning another attack run, they run back southward for two minutes until they saw one quiet tilt-rotor aircraft just two miles approaching them from south, "That's our extraction plane" the leader said, they set up defensive perimeter as the american V-25 closing on their position to fetch them home.

Inside Russian waterzone

Near the border

"This is 821, targets are all destroyed"

The MiG survived the fight along with the other three, the four now went westward to Petropavlovsk in four right hand finger formation. The two MiGs left two R-77s remain unused during the battle whilst for the Sukhois has used two of six Adders and four Archers, "821, Oka Nieba. Detect six KV-20s and nine Mi-55s inbound from the west towards the gulag, you must destroy them fast".

"Dad, I got the philtreses here. A book of rage" Ross mentioning the only Intel he found in one of nine barracks where eight enemy patrols laid lifeless around it were a laptop. "Okay, goodbye" Ferguson signal the Ghosts to pull back to the RHIB, they RV at the detention building and Exfil through the well the Hunter team comes by. As the Ghosts come out from the tunnel with two Alpha Groups, "Farewell" Zoya 6 signaling the patrolling russians to fall back toward Petropavlovsk city, suddenly the allied Russian/American Special forces heard a faint roaring above them, "hurry up" Ross hissed as they rushed to the gladly intact RHIB.

"I'll engage the Helicopters, you take the Artillery, 821" "Alright, we'll descend to 2.000 feet and start the attack run". The four twin engined fighter jets invert dive to the appointed altitude and set their weapons on stand by, but not for the Flankers as they arming the US AMRAAM counterparts and in no time they got Lock tone on the eight helicopters, "Fire Fox One" each of the two Su-27Ms fired all four Adders to the choppers 3 minutes gaped between them, it travels for around 26 seconds exactly to the helpless helicopters. One of it retreated but ended up like the other eight by Sokovs R-77VV-AE right after Molot team fired Fix one, "Beginning ECM Coverage" Molot 1 activate its ECM tubes against the KV-20s position, the four set from Afterburner to non-afterburner thrust power still in the four finger formation. "Eight miles to the Target" 821 marked, now they're reached the altitude 2.000 plus getting closer to their prey faster which by that time the Ghosts and the GRUs which they're supposed to protect has already left the Gulag, too late to totally expose themself to their fleeing allies. "Six miles, marking the targets" four miles before lock on, give a lot time for Sokov to mark his target so his subordinate wouldn't accidentally attack his picks, "let's fly lower to 500 feet" Sokov said, they then slowly pitch down the nose and descending until they reach 500 feet terrain mask. "Three miles and closing", their prey were sighted via IRST over the outskirts of Yelizovo, a town totally abandoned since the fall of Aleksander Treskayev. They saw the skies were shattered with black smoke occurring explosions like the Fulcrum lead said, but its 1.500 feet higher than the fours current altitude add with the fact that the skies were almost total dark due to clouds blocking the moonlights which render it useless. Sokov has his three marked targets locked on, he pressed the trigger on his flight stick fired simultaneously three US Maverick counterparts to its preys spread within the woods, his wingman fired three salvos to its target within the town which ten seconds later confirmed the damage not only caused the Artillerys to be shattered beyond recognition, but some parts of empty buildings around the vehicle collapsed. "This is Oka nieba, Mission is complete so you're cleared RTB"

Elmendorf AFB, Alaska

Canteen

"Alright, guys and gals...Commander says enjoy the meals now and enjoy the beers now, tomorrow we'll be back to Partridge at 0850" Ferguson said to the queuing five with pan on their possession, they thumb up and replied "Eight Fifty!", he's having dinner with Ross and Rebecca still clad in vests and its pouches like the queuing fives accompanied by a classic jazz music that blared almost the whole canteen like there was a party. The queuing five regrouped with the three highness chatting about each life back at home.

FOB Partridge

The white skulls operative has fallen asleep in their barracks, Captain Park Hye-Sung were with Col. Mike Kim and Derrick Parker examining the netbook, JSF patrolled the base inside and outside. Without their notice, high above the Forward base...

"All accounted, five planes" Guts reassured. They fly at angles 15 in subsonic speed directed to Osan where supposedly Crenshaw would await him for future tasking, without his knowing too including invitation letter to be in the US Air Force High Altitude Warfare Experimental team based at Nellis AFB.

Extra notes

\- my FOB Partridge is named after Captain Arthur Partridge, in the Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, he were the commander of the most advanced ELINT vessel in that time, the USS Clarence E. Walsh, the ship also made appearance in the PV before the first mission of GR2, destroyed by Super Silkworm missile.

The Captain and Sam fishers has very close relationship dating back from the Iraq war before the first Splinter Cell series and has housed Fisher during the SCCT, operating in southern america countries until the fourth mission. (Correction is due)

\- ASCC (Air Standardizatiom Coordination Comitee) is the NATO group known to identify eastern bloc aircrafts such as MiG-29A Fulcrum, Su-27 Flanker and newest CFA-44A Fandance (First letter F for Fighter, H for Helicopter, ie. Havoc, Hind, Hip and Hokum. Bomber Backfire, Bear and Blackjack).

In the case of EndWar, NATO and other groups under its command were disbanded, naming method possible became different by the US and EF.

\- White Skull brigade is the South Korean special forces group making its first appearance in the Ghost Recon 2 first mission 'Tank Ambush', the group were lead by Lieutenant Yi, Mitchell were tasked to escort one of their soldier carrying M139 AT Rocket to destroy the invading tanks. In a mission before Hamhung dam, White skull brigade were mentioned in briefing that they were raiding an enemy camp detached some of their operators to provide defensive perimeter for the ghosts rescuing the downed pilot.

GR2 is the only series they make appearance. I assumed the White Skull brigade to be the equivalent of the Ghost but...then again...probably debated.

\- The Gulag in this fic is the AC-TC alternative of one in the strangereal Pobeda peninsula, Yuktobania. This is where the Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War mission to rescue Captain Bartlett takes place. (Correction is due)


	8. Back to Mog

Key West, Florida

Hangar D

October 23rd 2026

"Schweitzer!"

The Army man snapped, beside him were. Captain K.C. Kirkland in unique AOR2 but with classic AA (Army Airborne) logo by the right shoulder.

"You okay LT?" Kirkland asked again the man in unique Crye Tiger Stripe looking down to the refueled MV-25 with some crews crisscrossed around it, couples carrying an ammo container, two or three preparing firearms, they bear skull patch on either side of their shoulder. "You kidding me, cap? (Chuckles) the federation?", Kirkland nodded as he taking a sip of his ginger tea, "I know...hard to believe, lieutenant...we're going to them, close and personal. You're not the only one denying this but...trust me, they'll come to us, that's the only comment I could give to anybody asked me about this", "Bah...right. The USASOCOM should give us the explanation to me unless the Pentagon done first", "Uhuh...let's move out LT!", the two went down and pick their packs for departure along with four more Ghosts.

Mogadishu, Somalia

October 28th 2026, 01.14pm

Sun brighten the capital of somalia, heat too covered most of the northern africa as well southern european, some clouds accompanied the blue skies residing at 30.000 feet. A typical sighting in the horn of africa

"This is Bangle 8, we're hit, Mayday! Mayday! we're going down!"

01.16pm

ETA 3.00 Minutes southeast of the crash

"Ghosts, be advised : One of two Gadflies went down in the depot area south of the airport while enroute to Kearsage after intel snatching mission, our drone spotted all six men were still alive but unusually large number of rebels closing in from multiple directions, must be related to whatever they got from the coup forces. Your general ask to evacuate these men and their contents, destroy the wreckage and RV with the 26th Mechanized Battalion two miles southwest of the port"

"Acknowledge, skipper. We'll bag the men down and tag the bird down" Replied Jenkins to the Skipper of the USS Alreigh Burke, the ship that the ghosts Echo team stayed for their current campaign. He and other seven men under his command onroute onboard the Italian EH-101 EW Helo with suitability as a Controller for both Air and Ground units, "ETA 1 Minute to LZ" said the pilot through the comm, "You hear that? Check your Gears and Ammo" the Grenadier reminded. Of the eight men cell, three of them wearing black field uniform still with desert UCP Mk.2 pants and vests like the others that wear complete Mk.2 and PASGT Helmet, they were SFG Gary Wilson with his Specter and ATPIAL attached Korean K2, Captain Kyle Cunningham who got himself a SCAR-L fitted with 4x ACOG and a front vertical grip, the last one were Captain Roy Miller with same setup to Kyle, the cells got Elsa and Charles with G36K fitted to a HWS with 2x magnifier instead squad automatic weapons, the rest Balaclava covered were simply riflemen and marksmen with the HK416 fitted with dual Holosight 2x Magnifier, Jenkins got his rifle attached with M203 since he were a good Grenadier. "Echo Team, Update : Your mission controller will be switched by Lieutenant General Mitchell to the Italian Controller callsign 'Ghost Eye', all mission orders will be come from him through the Italian", "Roger Captain Olson, Confirmed our comms relayed"

"Team, Stand by for drop" the helo pilot told the Ghosts they're just hair away from the LZ, the eight Green Berets were ready for any kind of worst worse. "We're on the LZ, set the rope" Jenkins commanded, Elsa and Miller opened the cabin hatches on both sides and drop the ropes for using it to disembark themself from the chopper followed by Bo and the rest five, the place they drop were sandy terrain with destroyed truck remaims littered the area like it was already intended for cover, fighting already intensifies right when the italian chopper about to leave the area, ahead of the formerly D Company were a renovated ports with currently three flat roofed buildings for storage while the crash site were north right off the port, although facing heavy resistance the eights pushed forward and further into the port area where a T-100 Ogre awaiting them, fortunately.."Ghosts this is Shooter 1, I had a lock on that tank, hold your position for a second" Colonel Doug Robinson informed from nowhere the enemies can see him, until an AH-85 Blackfoot appeared from the edge of 300 feet cliff and obliterate the tank and shatter anyone standing in the Ghosts path using one of twelve hellfire, "All cleared Ghost Lead, continue to attack. I had some business at the Stadium" D-Ray said as he left the area northwest, the Ghosts pushing back into the port where the eight split into two group to each two of three two-stories structures, southeast and northwest across will be the first assault before reuniting in the building northeast end of the depot, Bo and his three Echo 1 team (Abe Koji, Gary Wilson and Cho-Eun) stormed the northwest one where the enemy of seven troops were taken out effortlessly despite the shootings, corpses of the four coup and three pirates spilled the floor with nothing left standing out, "Echo 1-1 here, Structure 1 is secured" Jenkins appraised, "This is Echo 2-1, all check" Kyle report, "Alright, let's secure the last one"

Somewhere near the stadium

"This is Timber 2-5 Charlie, we're taking fire from the west of the gate, heavy small arms and armors from the town, requesting support!"

"This is Timber 1-1 Actual, Timber 1-1 Bravo and Charlie were down, we need Medevac on our position at the east gate!"

"2-5..1-1, this is Gale 3-1 Actual..we're currently two blocks south of the west gate, sit tight!"

Several Recon Mariners were trapped over the high wall covered Stadium within the enemy controlled city, gates were fitted with pads and sandbags for gate watchers. Taking overwhelming attacks from east and west that has already claimed eight of eighteen Marines, eight MARSOC operatives armed with XMX were on the rush to the west gate "Gale 3-1 this is 2-5, I got six squad left covering the west gate so please hurry!"

"Allied channels, all allied channels this is Shooter 1, do any callsign copy? Over"

"Shooter 1 this is Gale 3-1, our guys were taking fire from enemy armors west of the stadium, can you take it out for us?"

The Blackfoot paced up to the stadium looking for it to the west, the advanced radar and electronics has given the long promoted helicopter ace not only the armors reported by the marines, but also many more all over the palace and bakara market as well importantly around the stadium the USMCs used as stronghold. "This is shooter 1, stand by..." the Blackfoot found the two T-80s shooting its small arms to the stadium unaware of his aircraft hovering quitter behind the attacking forces, "Kiss goodbye" Doug said as he launched few Incendiary rockets attached to the left wingtip, the rockets hit the armored engine compartment with heat so high that would render it inoperable in two hits and destruct the tank soon, soldiers nearby the ground vehicles were fried to death with wailings clearly seen by Doug. "Shooter 1 to 3-1, troops coming from the west has been neutralized, gimme more targets", a big explosion occurred from the stadium, through the radar D-Ray could see a Tank accompanied by multiple Rocketmen has totally obliterated Kilo team at east gate, "Shit! They got more armors from the east..no, one armor with multiple RPGs...GET DOWN!..." Another explosion is the last thing he heard from the marines in the stadium, "Sierra Omega Bravo" Doug muttered. He rushed to the east gate to get rid of the enemies there, "3-1 to Shooter 1, we're in the stadium...all Timber 1 team were down, I say again : Timber 1 is down, do we have another helo for extract?", "Stand by 3-1, I too got a bird down near the airport, let me relay that to Kings mountain".

The fighting in the town getting more intensified, many tents within the stadium collapsed by the attack and corpses of the american fighting forces littered nearby the entrance, just then two rockets fly above them to the east towards the T-100 Ogres turret and cannon muzzle, the tank explode fries the occupants within and soldiers nearby, the Blackfoot hovered above building level and fired the rightside HE rocket pod to two buildings surrounding the tank which surely for Doug eliminate the RPG threats, "Kings mountain this is Shooter 1, I'm requesting immediate extraction chopper for units trapped within the stadium, they got multiple casualties and less of them were getting worth fighting." he then went north further before circling around the stadium looking for other threats, "Negative Shooter 1, we are still looking for safe routes for that. Enemy activities were intensive, can't risk another bird, you have to keep them covered more longer. Give us six minutes"

"Did you copy that 3-1?"

Back in the depot

An explosion occurs right northeast of the depot, "Echo 1-1 to Ghost eye, we've secured the crash site...we have all sixes safe and sound, can the convoy altered to our position? Over" Jenkins comms in to the italian controller, "That...is negative, they're babysitting war casualties there, red crosses were still a hour away. Your ETA on foot is 10 minutes...oh...we got SEAL Task Force Bengals on location close to your AO for demo mission but ready to cover you guys, proceed with your extraction", "Negative, I can't extract yet!" A woman interupted

She were the Gadfly pilot escorted by eight Team cells southwest along with four combatants, "I got one more..one more vital intelligence fall from the chopper by the missile impact, I need to get it!", the female german pilot said in perfect american dialect, "Well..why don't you sync us to it" , she just nod, "We plant tracking device to it in case we losing it" she said as she fiddle her touchscreen gadget strapped to her left arm sharing the location of the intel. "Its synchronized, the intel sits right atop of the gasoline within the town. Its in the SEALs jurisdiction, ghosts, let them hand it over to us later. That's what your general relay to you!" The italian controller assured, Jenkins a bit reluctantly comply to it as he were expect for worst worse "Roger that, we're onto extract". The ghosts getting back into the depot snatching vehicles for quick wrap of mission, they remembered three Toyota Hilux pick-ups belonging to a private medical company parked in front of the northwestern building, "Roy, Charles, Wilson you all get behind the wheels, Go!" Ordered Jenkins which the three complied, he got up with the other four European KSKs each carrying desert painted JGM-4 attached G36KV while the rest of the Ghosts got up with The pilots on other pickup, Roy who take the Ghosts only roll out first followed by the Korean-american with pilots and then Wilson and the europeans, "Ghost eye, We're advancing by three trucks to the 26th Battalions position", "One of their Fastback were closing onto the outskirt a click away, maintain your course. Bengals, relay Echo team with your comms, what's your status on the package?" The italian comms the eight men SEAL cell in the town.

"This is Bengal 1-1, Bengal 2-1 has retrieved the package and now waiting for us on the way to the LZ. Ghost lead, could you not to return to ship yet just in case?", "In case of what, Bengal 1-1?" Jenkins curious.

Empty living town

"Uuh...this place is totally quite, no friendlies nor foes activities here except us, something is not right, you know what I'm talking about" said the worried lead Frogmen cell in AOR-1 strapped with tan SPCS wielding on his right hand an Elcan Specter fitted HK416 like the rest five, two other men wield the M150 RCO attached Stoner M96. "Alright, We'll be with the 26th Battalion until we're needed" the older man replied understanding, "Seahawk Goose 3-1 is inbound to the LZ in the depot, you Ghosts must cover the SEALs extraction back in the depot after your packages handed over" Ghost eye relayed Mitchells mission update to the Army men. A building deep in the downtown exploded witnessed by the four Frogmen afar from it, "Target neutralized, Exiting area" the lead SEAL comms up, "Bengal 1-1 this is Goose 3-1, we're enroute to LZ", the four Navy spec ops went eastward to the Gas station three blocks away, the place where one SEAL operator and the other three waited them with typical Mil-spec rugged Netbook containing the important-important.

ETA 5 Minutes east of the depot.

An MH-60R flying around 500 feet to the depot where the crash is happened, it has two DAGR pods (Direct Attack Guided Rocket) for clearing the LZ if its hot as previously on the ship they're briefed to get unknown number of resistance. The eight SEALs reunited at the Gas station, without waste any time they rushed east to the depot, still so far they only encounter four hostiles before even getting to the building they demolished. Just then they heard an explosion south of their position, "What's that?" Thought the lead SEAL.

3 Blocks north of the southwest gate

The eight Green berets got ambushed by the rebels, miraculously there were no casualties occurred on them and they still wanted to fight back. The enemies using a two-stories building currently south of them on the right road as their cover and thump the american with RPG that unfortunately for them missed a meter away from the convoy, rear car were crashed to a chunk of rock, the driver (Gary wilson) whose unharmed went out joining the fight killed the RPG in the process, another RPG comes up from the top of the same building only to be blasted by Jenkins HE Grenade fired from his M203. The fighting lasted quick, only 2 minutes the ghosts inflict casualties of those who fail inflicting single casualty, "SAM LAUNCH!" Cried the lead Navy Team, worried the old but reliable man "Bengal 2-1, what's going on there? Respond!". Everybody looked to him, "Sir?" Concerned Koji, "Okay..Echo 2, RV the packages to the Battalion, you come with me Koji, Cho-eun get back to your wheel, haul ass back to the depot!".

Back in the port

The SEALs got attacked by the insurgents all over their surroundings, claimed two of their teammates. The Seahawk got destroyed by SAM fire hit right through the cockpit, claimed all its occupants. "Get to the port! Get to the port!" Yelled the leader as he sprint to the depot area with the other five, "Ghost lead! We're under heavy fire, taking two casualties!". The rebels has arrived discreetly and greet the american commandos with overwhelming numbers, "...(Static)...oming to you, sit tight!" Replied the Army team leader, unknown to them the enemies inbound from the southwest to the port in large numbers, including a T-100 Ogre, the Frogmen went to the northeastern building and set it up as their stronghold for some unknown time. one of the Navy man went to the roof and set up his SMAW against the tank, the HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) shot successfully destroyed the tank and its occupants before even one shot can be given, unfortunately he too got shots by gunners from one of many buildings outside.

"No! My 2IC is down, Get the hell over here!"

"We're under heavy fire, takes some times as this town release its bad breath! Sit tight, We'll be there!" Replied the old man riding in the back of the truck with his Rifle mounted Grenade launcher fired against enemies already coming by, the whole Mogadishu has fallen to the enemies hands. "This is Ghost lead, were 2 minutes away from your position" the three Army men keep driving to the depot hoping to stave off the assaulting rebels against the SEAL although not really sure on how to get out alive, Cho-eun drive the truck to its top speed limit of 150 MPH through the rain of bullets with no support ready around them, until.."Echo 1-1 this is Dig-Dug, we're inbound in hot on your tail. Covering!" said a female helicopter pilot from nowhere, the trio keep running through the reigning metals from 7.62 fires all over the place, suddenly an explosions follow up behind them followed by an RPG rocket flying passed them to the large building two kilometers ahead where unknown to them another RPG man waited, much worse is there were large numbers of explosives got stored by the rebels, the building as the result exploded hard and make a chain reaction to the stores inside, explosions occurring all around the structure sending the rubles to litter the streets ahead, "Oh God! What was that?" Cho-eun shocked, "Behind us! Its our support, let her have it!" Their captain noticed. The MELB unleashed its Mini guns and rockets canted on its lengthened wings that has additional eight Hellfires to use against armors that might block the Ghosts path taken them to turn right and then take the left strolling the exploded building that began to collapse, rubles began to rain the road along the building the three americans take, behind them were the MELB about to passed them, there's a tank ahead the Army men which immediately destroyed by the Hellfire shot and left the trios to just drive further northeast.

The mariners within the stadium were finally pulled out by an UH-1Y Venom, two AH-1Z Vipers that supposedly protect the transport helicopter were unfortunately veen destroyed as they reach the stadium, D-Ray barely managed to keep the advanced Huey in top shape as it SPIE Rigged the only surviving five marines and take them back to Alreigh Burke, the challenge for Doug getting higher as he spot on his radar two Mi-55 Locust above the national palace towards the Venom, he rushed quickly to the two helicopters to shoot both down to no avail as it were heavily armored and the blackfoots mini guns and rocket attacks weren't worked proved the sturdiness of the Hind based helicopters until Doug tried a shot of Incendiary rocket aimed to the main rotor of each locusts which luckily it worked as the two flying IFVs getting weaker on flying and then quickly it falls to buildings below. The Venom egress southeast going through the city as planned before in hopes of avoiding more rebels and coup forces, D-Ray job now is to escort the exfil helo until it arrive at the destroyed airport to turn towards the Burke. He flies ahead of the package and ensure nothing gets in its way as it flee the city. He take out mainly technicals and RPGs positioned on rooftops as well some groups of infantry with AKM.

"Echo 1-1 to Ghost eye, can we have fire mission to Bengals targets?"

"Negative Ghost lead, Guys from the top doesn't wanted collateral damage for targets location unclear"

The three ghosts lost its air support, they're now on foot strolling the alley that would sent them straight to the depot, "Bengal lead, do you read me? What's your status?" Jenkins asked, the downed pilot wielding AKM were going with them to rescue the beaten Seals, "Ghost lead, 1-1 here, I got only four men left here with one more dying, we're slaughtered!" The lead frogmen said a bit yelled, the army men moving as fast as they could on foot through small resistance of enemy soldiers, taking out six as they closer to the other end of the alley, "This is C2 Ghost eye to Nomad 6-1, proceed to the mission area and provide fire support in and around the AO, clear the LZ. Nomad 6-2, send in the rescue team top of the target building", "What's the second team?" Asked 1st Lt. Kelly 'Dig-Dug' Power, "You'll see it for yourself. Their radio call is 'Savior 1'"

Two MH-60DAPs inbound from the east, each armed with two Dagger pods and eight Hellfires, everything they bring up were every things necessary to save the Navy commandos, 6-2 brought four Combat rescue commandos to extract four bodies of the fallen Seals in the town, 6-1 would deploy more six soldiers from the 75th Ranger Regiment to cover the PJs going into the town, while the rescue men bring up with them M4A1SOCOMs fitted with Holosight and 3x Magnifier and Mk.48 LMG, the 75th Rangers brought up with them SCAR-L for each assaulters, strangely two MG4KE LMGs and one M16 SPR for cover fire, "Ghost eye, 6-1, ETA to Daggers lock-on range : fifteen seconds at high speed"

"Echo team, this is Ghost eye, enemy infantries has surrounded the depot, can you defend the area from your position?" The italian controller asked as he see the ghosts through FLIR mode (Black and White tone) an RQ-102 above.

"Echo Lead here, we can cover south and northwest entrance and then RV with the Seals but we need fire support to take out enemies inside the town" Jenkins replied while he firefight the rebels approaching southwestern gate with Dig-dug in an empty and messed up clinic, Koji and Cho-eun positioned north of their leaders location, its in a cafe overlooking the building they raid before, they fighting the forces covering the assaulting forces in the seals stronghold, the korean-american brave through fierce gunfires towards the destroyed car in front of them where he toss a grenade to the group of four rebels approaching the cafe, the explosive killed all four of them as they attempt to get away from it. They put up suppressing attack on the assaulting forces from their present position, around ten rebels they going after, killed four of them in the process with rest of them taken out with two guided rockets coming from east, "This is Nomad, ETA to drop off ten seconds". Two Blackhawks firing again their DAGR pods to the southwest entrance eliminating inbound enemy forces come up with BMP-2, "This is 6-2, we're dropping PJs on building Bravo", "Roger, we got you covered" Cho-eun said as he lob another grenade to five rebels, three of them were flown to the air and dead as they hit the ground, rest two were confused by the explosion which the GSTs swiftly taken out, "Echon1-2 and 1-4, Proceed to the stronghold, I'll be there. Out" Jenkins commanded somewhere. By that they rushed through the rain of bullets into the depot yard, running towards the northeastern building where their objective crash site still sit near there, shoot and move, passed the west building where Nomad 6-2 touch the roof and simply get the Pararescue units lay down their foot and climb down the building by a ladder, two men with M4A1 and M249 went prone provide suppressing fire against the rebels in the town. "PJs on the ground, we're leaving to cover mode", "Roger 6-2, deploying Rangers on the court", the other Blackhawk landed ahead of the Seals stronghold covered by the PJs trying to repel the incoming enemies from two directions. "Friendlies coming in!" Koji yelled the Navy commandos, their team leader and the downed pilot were already inside treating the dying soldier layed on the small table by the window overlooking their first objective, on its right were stair to the buildings rooftop, "Hey, there's a SMAW on the roof!" One of the Seal said to the coming army men "Koji, take care this guy, Charles come with me!", the two men come upstairs and picked the SMAW and the remaining two AT rockets, "Enemy tank...no, two tanks! Tag em out! Tag em out!" Shouted Bengal 1-1 while keep firing his HK416, "Last mag!" He shouted his man, "Hold on, I found 556 boxes here...and many STANAGs filled up, LT you go with me, he's patched up, right?", the woman comply to him help getting the STANAGs into the bag and bring it for the seal while the Abe bring two 556 boxes by a tabled cart, "You do the loading, you're my Alpha status objective" Koji said to her, "if you guys run out, ask the mag!" He said again as he start to load in ammunitions to his first box. A thump were heard topside, then a rocket trail flying straight to an armored vehicle far outside engulf it in flames, "Sir, another one outside on the road!" Charles pointed as he load the last rocket to the SMAW held by Jenkins which he then fired it to his prey parked in front of the southwest gate, "Boom! Like the 4th July!" Cho-eun celebrated short before continue shooting his G36, "Technical! Coming from northeast by the road!" One of the ranger yelled, the old man resort to his M203 firing its last airburst grenade destroying the incoming Hi-lux truck.

Inside the town were joint four Pararescue commandos carrying one body by a stretcher each two of them back to the helicopter landing zone covered by three rangers with two SCARs and MG4KE as they pulling back, covered by long range gatling gun concentrated to buildings occupied by the enemy. "I got four Little birds coming to the south gate for exfil. Nomad, land and load the bodies back to barn. Ghost lead, go with the Bengals to a pad" Ghost Eye refered to an abandoned small village at the middle of nowhere, "C2, Got it!" Jenkins replied as they keep firing their rifles to the enemies now holding in buildings outside the depot, "That all because there is something awful?" Charles asked, "More enemies inbound to your location, dozens of bodybags by tomorrow to fill is too much to handle" their controller replied. The two carried the dead soldier and retreated downstairs to find his fellow teammate and the pilot now readied stretcher for the dying soldier, the two take the other stretcher near the stair and laid him there, "The Blackhawks landed? Get the bodies loaded there!" The old man commanded, "They're here, we got you covered, sir!" One of the firefighting Seals yelled, by that the four lift up the bodies and got out the building straight to the Blackhawk, the PJs coming up with two more bodies with one of it boarded on other MH-60 just touch down, "Hey, this guy is the only one still dying" the Ghost leader said to one of the airman, "Okay, two of us with six rangers will take care this one, thanks for carrying them for us, sir!" The rescue leader and the old man shake hand before letting them home, from the south were four Little birds coming to pick eight soldiers with one intel the gadfly pilot asked, MH-60s and AH-60s with DAGR pods and Mini-guns set ablaze covering the extraction, "Ghost eye, Nomad 6-1, all contents wrapped in, we're bailing out" the MH-60s leave the depot and let two unmanned MELBs (Mission Enhanced Little Birds) coming down pick up the eight survivors sit on the ramps set on each side of the extraction aircrafts, the helo swiftly take-off and flee southwest going further from the city

"Overlord, the package is secured"

"Copy that Ghost eye, let them rest at the forward base...thank you for your coordination"


	9. Sandstorm Part 1 Prologue

Washington D.C.

February 11th, 2026

"Welcome Mr. President"

The day the United States of America elect Vincent Harling as the next president replacing David Beccera, in his time being the senator he has visioned to recover America from the ashes of the World War III and rising up from the violent war against rogue PMCs worldwide, in the war time with two superpowers, he were among those whose not support the war rather done something beneficials to the citizens, opening jobs for those sought it, support on poverties, healthcare and utmostly education. All that has led him earning more votes to the Hale Jefferson, though he rather militaristic typical governor he also follows some of Harlings vision for his country though more to empowered the military strength following the war.

Surprisingly on that same date, moscow also rise up Seryozha Viktrovich Nikanor as the new president of the russian federation following Volodins detach from the presidency, he no longer work on politics and rather spent his life with families, Nikanor unlike Volodin is formerly a professor at the history and cultural university in St. Petersburg, related to the destruction of Romashkinov, he sliced about 40 percent of the military budget in attempt to recover Russian economy as the Gas and Oil stock were damaged by numbers of war, these two new leaders were resulted in tension between the US, Europe and Russia dropped down drastically, again entering the newer age of peace.

On february 18th, the new President of the US made public announcement regarding the 'Freedom Star' Project, he state that he with NASA would kickstart the conversion to replace the destroyed ISS in support of space exploration and missions with other countries, this news has caught media attentions worldwide especially Paris and Moscow, support were surprisingly coming from ordinary citizens in the three superpowers although most russians don't really get along with it, Russia, EF, Japan and South Korea announce support on the conversion, seperate space project were conducted in NASA Kennedy Space Center, Russian rocket pad at Uzbekistan and newly built JAXA (Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Association) Basset in Kyushu to pace up the program.

Early May, 2026

Arab Saudi and Iran were both finally recovered after the devastating war from 2016 to 2019, now the new leader of both nations were trying their best to further rise their country from ashes of war. To prevent the tension between the two countries rose up again, King Amand Al-nur the new leader of Saudi Arabia planned a peace talk with the new Iran leader. Shah Massoud at Cairo, Egypt which he agreed gladly, the new Saudi king invited many islamic nations to join the talk on June 6th to resolve anomalies that turns out to be caused by the Russian terrorist attack that also led to World War III between the US and Europe.

Cairo Downtown

June 3rd, 2026, 8.00pm Local Time

Somewhere within the crowded market of Cairo, an explosions suddenly occurs in multiple places from RPG attacks, killed lots of people. Shooters were all escaped, motive behind the attacks were not known, additionally one limousine that attacked were found transporting Massoud who killed by the attack, including his personal securities patrolling around the market. Investigation support given by the Royal Saudi Army still yield no results until the Egypt intelligence agency revealed that the bombing were meant to be a coup within Iran, the new leader Abrahim Ali-Khazai take the power. Before the death of the Shah, diplomats from america, canada, europe, australia, even japan and south korea visited the capital city Teheran reviewing the chilling political situation in hopes of opening relationship back again, after the coup discovery, the civil war erupted with the regime uphold the control of the country, commiting attrocities to civilians particularly outsiders including iraqis and turkeys, fate of the diplomats were never heard since then.

He went war against the nation of Saudi arabia, Qatar and Bahrain as well against the remnant of Iranian forces loyal to Massoud. With the battle tactics using numerous air bombings for the ground forces advances the coup forces has occupied almost all territories, the rebelling Iranian forces were pushed out losing bases after bases, most of them retreated southward to Bandar abbas Naval base since combat ships are critical combat assets of any nations and iran is no exception, their retrofit programs on numerous ships has them capabilities on par with China, Russia and even nearly as batter as US. Now the fighting were still intensifies inside the country, the aggression of the coup were barely contained by combined forces of Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq aiding the loyalist forces, even with helps from the Saudi the loyalist weren't able to even retake small part of the country as the coup forces were strangely more better in tactics.

December 3rd 2026

Rebelling iranian forces still holding territory south of Iran, with them were two bases remained on their possession : Bandar Abbas and Bushehr. They're holding there, barely able to keep the coup away from them with old war planes, yet attacks keep coming by combined units flying old and newer planes. Combined forces of Saudi, Bahrain and Qatar weren't enough to help Iran maintain control of territory, US willing to help as per requested by Saudi and iranian government but still requiring time to amasses forces to the continent, time is not what these rebelling forces have.

30 miles northwest of Bandar Abbas

10.15am, Local Time

"Enemy aircraft approaching Bandar Abbas, you're cleared to engage"

Bright sun reflected lights from five light blue coloring planes flying northwest to meet the enemy, five planes : two F-4Es armed with two Pythons and four Alamos and three F-14As armed with two Pythons and six Alamos, "Confirmed, ten bandits flying F-7 coming from North, northwest and west, they're the one downed out patrol team" the ground radar clarify about the chinese built MiG-21, "Red 10, Understood, weapons authorized" the lead formation in F-14 Lt. Col. Ibnu Kamil replied, on his left were his squadron mate supposedly based at Esfahan like him goes by radio name 'Red 9' while the two F-4s on his right were from the other squadron based at Hamadan, goes by radio name 'Gray' led by Col. Salim Al-din. "Enemy forces approaching our position at high speed, go split up. Red 6, Go with Gray 3 to the west bandits, Gray 6 and Red 9..go north, I'll handle the northwest one" the lead F-14 said, now the five planes split up to three groups encountering the enemy that now pacing up to fight them, armed with three Archers, these Fishbeds were feared by even F-15 pilots for its high speed and maneuverability despite lack of some newer technologies. "Contact, two miles and closing fast" the lead plane Al-Adn report, he can see the enemy planes emit white small smoke that they know it as..."They're open fire, Break! Break!" Al-Adn exclaimed as he steered left avoid the attack, Red 6 who he too avoid right could hear gun tracers missed two of them, the hostile iranian passed them head on which they can see its uniquely painted all white.

Red 10 meanwhile were already taken out an F-7 by high speed, head to head gun attack, one Fishbed dispersed from its downed wingman so it too won't torn apart by the stray gun. "Its going 7 o'clock" Kamil's RIO Maj. Ahmad Azis said as the enemy plane passed them, the F-14 turned left chasing its hunter which too hunt the prey, the pilot see the plane went rightward trying to get its prey on its face, but instead the prey eventually get on its tail which without second thought.."Guns! Guns! Guns!" Kamil fired its machine gun again to the rogue plane and tumble it onto the ground, the F-7 pilot ejected, same to his wingman, "This is Red 10, I got two of them"

"Red 9, Fox two!"

One F-7 were destroyed by 9s Python missile, it went into the exhaust of the Chinese built Fishbed and obliterate the aircraft beyond recognition, "Red 9, Behind you!" The F-4 pilot warned another Fishbed on the F-14s tail, "Break left, I'll get him off!" Gray 6 told, he steered his plane rightside 90 degrees and attain a lock with his Python missile which immediately launched to the F-7 still chasing its prey, in no time the missile tucked the canopy of the coup jet fighter which surely claim the live of its pilot. "Warning! Four more hostile aircrafts five miles heading to base abbas from northwest!". "Affirmative, radar. We're onto them, all planes we're going to attack them in one force" Kamil commanded which complied by the other four closing onto their lead team forming the five ship wing formation within fifteen seconds, three Persian cats on the center to right pattern and the Phantoms filled the left side, plenty missiles unused yet on their aircrafts. Suddenly "Red 6 here, we got spiked", then quickly it went more "Missile alert! Break Formation!" Kamil exclaimed, the five planes break formation again trying to avoiding the missile by spreading to multiple directions, "I see two missiles from our 11 o'clock and closing, three miles!" Kamil's RIO noted the others. Its visible from their position, about five seconds before it get to them, the flight leader pulled up 45 degrees and launched chaffs that saved his life, he then roll the aircraft 180 degrees downward, switch to Python and wait for an enemy plane coming head on to him, "Red 10, Radar, Got three more bandits inbound from northwest...looks like they're the final wave, finish them off", "Understood, Radar".

The lead rebellion squadron paced up towards the last three planes of same type they just encountered while the other four occupied by their owns, "Fox two! Fox Two!", "Guns guns guns!", "A missile, I'm evading" and other radio chatter filled his helmet headset, "12 o'clock, closing rapidly!" His RIO commed, the enemy planes locked on him which in no time they fired their heatseeking missiles at him, he launched flares and bank right high avoided the missiles as well as the three planes almost crashed to him, quickly he turned towards them, selecting one python missile for close combat, "Got a lock on, Fox Two!" Kamil announce as he pressed the missile trigger launched the heatseeking missile to the Fishbed on left side of his flight lead, the prey break left but not hard enough to avoid the missile, it hits the central fuselage which entirely reduced the plane to shattered wings and some stabs, "one down! Two more to go!" His RIO exclaimed, the pilot fired his last heatseeking missile to the rightsided fishbed, its fired flares and missed the missile as it break hard right leaving his flight lead whose pulled up hard, "Sir, I'd say we take out the wingman first before going for the leader", he comply to that. The plane break hard right following the escaping fighter that flown to the clashes on their east, by that he set on his Alamo Semi-active missile, it locked to the targeted plane in no time which the pilot announced "Fox one away!", the missile went off from the wing pylon sprint to its prey with the shooter keep his plane steered to his enemy, the weapon hits the left tailwing and rip through to the right main wing splitting the plane to two tumbling parts falling to the ground, the missile tumbled away and exploded some seconds later, "One more to go! Hold on, he's on our six!" His RIO notified the last target fired the machine gun to his plane, he missed it and quickly break hard left avoiding the initial contact, the tailer managed to stay with him wherever he goes, every evasive maneuver he did weren't shook him off, decreasing airspeed which he did not do rather put him in closer danger, might cost his or RIOs live, all he can do now were keep moving here and there until he had a chance, the good thing suddenly comes up, another plane tailing behind going after the chaser, it was the F-4E about to fire the machine gun as the Flight leader turned his F-14 away, let his friend from Hamadan streak the last invader with machine gun fires went into the engine nozzle, spool up fire from the invaders vehicle that now flying uncontrollable downward, upward and so on until the plane cannot lift its body anymore, the pilot ejected to the clear blue sky with intense heat of both the sun and burning wreckages scattered over the barren desert with no signs of live but downed bad guys returning to their territory.

"Controller...Red 10, enemy forces has been eliminated..." The flight leader slight panting, "Remaining bandits were changing course to north, return to base".

Indian Ocean, approaching Saudi arabia

2.42pm

Pressure rising rapidly in Iran since the last incursion to Bandar Abbas, Navy sent rapid reaction unit to Riyadh and Oman gulf, closest were a Naval battlegroup of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower approaching the Oman gulf for long range support, ahead of the fleet were four black tailed Block III F/A-18F Super Hornets flying to Riyadh as part of the rapid reaction unit to support the loyalist iranian, yellow bar were painted on the tip of the stabilizers adorned with AA tailcode and skull head with crossbones, "Victor 1 this is Ike, we have clearance from the King, go ahead for the land at Riyadh, Scarface flight will catch up", "Aye-Aye". Lead aircraft were piloted one female pilot wore on her head the latest JHMCS the US military aviation get, her aqua green tinted visor lit up with light green grids showing airspeed in knots 500 and altitude currently angles 20 above the sea level, "I hope the king real okay to me", "Relax Cap, they needed us, they must have prep things for us", "Okay. Things here seems so heat up, even taxpayers seems worried with what's going on here", "Well let's hope for the best, you know Admiral couldn't shut up if he has his toys lost in combat", she chuckled with her WSOs reply, "Heheheh...tell me about it!"

Sheh Isa AB, Bahrain

2.44pm

"Snake pit flight, control, Clear to land"

"Snake pit 7-1, good copy, we are rolling in"

Somewhere near the control tower were four black Lincoln Navigators waiting two HAWX pilots on approach for conventional touchdown in the markless gray VTOL F-3B Shinden II, General David Crenshaw have with him the new female flyer, 1st Lieutenant Lola Somers trailing behind with landing gears dropped down after himself adding weight to quicken the touchdown, "Snake pit flight, Taxi by Alpha 3 to control tower ramp. Welcome to Bahrain, sir", "Snake pit 7-1, thank you". A big build man in black tuxedo gone after Crenshaws plane as it parked on the said area, the pilot himself just climb down the stairs and the suited man already by him, "General Crenshaw?" The man asked, "Yes sir" he nodded as he extend his hand to the man around 50 with sunglasses and earphone of secret service, "I'm Salik" he introduce as he shook the americans right hand, "Come with me, I'll take you to the Hotel, Defense ministry is waiting for you" he then called the base crew to take Davids and Lolas Flight gears and G-Suits leaving just flat desert zip up flight uniform and boots for both pilots as they mount to the middle Navigators that then quickly take off from the base to the downtown capital.

7.05pm

After the postpone

"General Crenshaw, Lieutenant Sommer, this is the defense ministry of bahrain Abdul shrawey and our king Sheh Hassan"

"No need for any formality of you two" the king on his very neat plain white turban stopped David from saluting, "Now two of you may sit, I'll explain while we take our dishes" again ordered, the two sit on the beautifully designed chair set with other four peoples on the white long table with plates of excellently served dishes and glasses of honey tea so well served, its aromatic smell reached their nose even when they stand, "So...General David Crenshaw..." Abdul about to talk while he looked to one of two Dossier sent from the white house, "I'm very impressed with your flight record. Particularly on your effort to prevent the Artemis attack on your very Country...and you Lieutenant Sommer..." She silently gulped, for seconds the minister didn't talked yet "I think I have nothing to doubt on you. You have an impressive flight record of flying many types of aircrafts, it seems you're all the one that can help us overcome this crisis", they nodded, job required them not to let everybody down no matter the risk, "We really wanted to help our iranian friend in this one as they also willingly to stop the war too, however there is one thing I need to show you" the king added, lights were turned off, put the ball room to total darkness, then the lights come off from the chandelier above the table followed by projector lit up on the wall, the two americans looked left to see the aerial photograph of a white circular complex on the desert area, it has three airstrips in different length southeast by the complex, on the middle of the complex were a dome surrounded by water system rounding around it, but something catch their eyes were eight turrets circling inside the complex, the whole turrets were nearly as the USS Iowa battleship in terms of length, "This what you see...is the presently near-operational Iranian Stonehenge Missile Shield, they began building it during the Moscow assault on 2016, a hundred miles east of Esfahan" the minister started, "You must be joking!" Lola shocked, did not believe with what she saw on the projected wall, "We believe they initially intend it to intercept ICBM attacks as the response to your SLAM system, now...with the capital fallen to the rogue regime...I fear they would use for their incursion effort to the south" the minister added again, the photo of the complex were slid with photos of each turrets, it has two cabins with windows to the loading area for unknown reason, "Our intelligence agency are the first one to retrieve this photographs, but we need all help we can get to take out that weapon. For the sake of our country and our allies!" The king added, "Any other info about this turrets?" David asked

Riyadh, Arab Saudi

7.07pm

"Tomorrow your squadron will be briefed back at the base" King Al-nur of Saudi replied to the black pony tail haired Captain Ritsuko Akizuki, whose still in her uniform, asking additional details of the intel shared by the Bahrain king, she and the other nine naval aviators representing the 7th Air Wing were on the dinner with the head of the Royal saudi and his ministers, "We'll do our best to help stabilize the situation in here" she assured him. She were slightly nervous by the turrets intel given by the Bahrain military for her arabian allies but its mostly because she were an american soldier, islamic formality were what she really know null especially to females, the king looked to her felt pity to the fact the beautiful black pony japanese looking woman like this Ritsuko would instead of being a writer, actress or a doctor she enlisting military, flying a metal bird that caused many lives lost, "I'm sure you will do. Now...enjoy your dishes, make yourself comfortable" the King ended, light coming from the projector showing the Stonehenge network were off, short dark before the ball room began live again with lights, there were also ten top officers invited to the dinner with the king chatted things on arabic as they continue consume their dishes or desserts provided on the neatly decorated table, Claire Hermonie sat right on Captain Akizuki, formerly Naval aviator of the VFA-14 Tophatters but leave the navy and became contract pilot since 2022, she were contracted by the Navy since the coup on Bogota occurred and now her contract were extended since the attack on San Francisco.

March 28, 2026

"The miracle has occured in Japan as in March 25th the land of the rising sun became listed no. 3 of the country with highest GDP and income behind no. 1 United Arab Emirate and no. 2 Bahrain, the ministry of finance Shina Aoyama said the what she called 'Economical miracle' were due to its improved tourism and industrial export to asia and europe, sources also indicate the sale of two domestic advanced military aircrafts the F-3 Shinden II and the R-101 Delphinus were also play part to this largest national fortune in the Japanese history"

North Carolina

Liberator Sports Bar and Grill

6.32pm

"Is it also because of our new President, commander?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no, guts. But one thing for sure..." Bishop looked to peoples around him before look back to the WNM News broadcast, "This because the end of the big war" he continued. With the two Warwolves were General David Crenshaw the commander of HAWX, Lieutenant General Mitchell back leading the squad formerly part of the 5th SFG, the former Rainbow Six Domingo Chavez, the uniquely japanese looking Colonel Kristie Busch the still leading Coyote squadron transitioned to A-20A Razorbacks, and her friend back in academy Colonel Stephanie Halverson whose now promoted to replace wills position as the Warwolf leader still flying the F-22A but now based to Hawaii. "Looks like we pull it off again" Mitchell commented, he looked to his watch before announce, "Time to go back home, guys and gals" he said as he leave the group out of the bar headed home, followed with the others behind him in separate directions.

"Now we move to London, revealed on the same March 25th announce that the New Commonwealth were officially dissolved, the United Kingdom and Ireland are once again stand as two independent countries in the face of the world. Both representative said this will not rupture political relationship with two countries, a joint program were created by both nations to develope jointly in terms of economical and military strength..."

Somewhere in Oshima Island, Tokyo

"Dad?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think they will looking for you again?" A young girl between her 23rd asked her dad, "Nah I'm out...I'm tired with their mocking!" Fisher joked but also its a serious, "Mock you about what?", "They say I'm getting too old for this kind of work", Sarah giggled by his getting humorous father, "If you break it to your fiancee I will break his neck", "Dad!" She hit his left bicep by that tease. The two in the simple cottage room of Oshima resort also enjoying the view of calm night sea set before the main district Kanto in the main land of Honshu illuminating the whole city, eventhough its five years since the attacks at Tokyo by Russia and Artemis the view still beholding sense of no war at all making it unforgetable for sarah and her father.

Extra note

\- Christina Amiela Busch (Kristie Busch) is my own name given to a female fighter pilot character in Ace Combat Assault Horizon that bear immense resemblance to Kei Nagase from Ace Combat 5, according to Ace Combat Wikia. She appears in the mission 'Homefront' cut scene (also appear in E3 Trinity trailer) and other briefing sections (You never know until you start tilt here and there the camera analog/mouse when you entered first person view during briefing part), in Homefront she were walking behind Colonel William Bishop,

Also Coyote 1's voice were similar to AC5 Nagase voice during both Nightmare and Homefront. (Ace Combat Wikia, easter eggs section)

"Coyote 1 to AWACS, Coyote 2 has been hit, he's out off his plane, I see a chute!" (Something like that)

The reason I named her so due to fact the real Kei Nagase in Assault Horizon Universe were test pilot for the ASF-X Shinden II, later designated F-3. This were also put her in the Novelized Ace Combat series in which the RAF version of Shinden II were put in alongside her.

Her (Busch/Nagase resembling pilot) original rank is unknown in the original game timeline, but in this fic I put her to Colonel, presumable many times of promotion pending and other options for keep servicing on the field from the AH timeplot to this fic year like Scott B. Mitchell during his time as Ghost Lead in GRAW. (Correction is due)

\- "Looks like we Pull it off again, Time to go back home guys and gals"

Is the quote said by Scott B. Mitchell in the PS2 version of Ghost Recon 2, he said it when he watch the newsline after the completion of Hamhung Dam mission (Preventing the destruction of the dam).

\- Humor quote given by Sam Fisher to his daughter were the originally said in the Splinter Cell Chaos Theory mission in Seoul right after completting extra primary objective to interogate one of two North Korean commando.

S : "You wanna tell me what's going on, Lambert?"

L : "Sorry Fisher, but you're getting too old for this kind of work"

S : "That was cruel!"

\- Tokyo attack by Russia and Artemis are two military attacks from two games series

Russian attack on Tokyo were on 2018 by the NRF (New Russian Federation), this prompt the testing Shinden II to armed with live ordnance in case of follow up attacks. Second attack were foiled by the Shinden II squadron after the emergency simulacrum. (This were based on Ace Combat Wikia of ASF-X Shinden II)

Artemis is the Military Corporation founded by Adrian DeWinter in the game HAWX (High Altitude Warfare X-Perimental). The corporation raided Tokyo, targetting USS Andrew Jackson battlegroup attempt to return to the United States to help repel the Artemis at the US soil, David Crenshaws squadron takes off from NAS Atsugi with remaining reserve aircrafts and secure the way for the battlegroup with the aid of the Japan Self-Defense Force. (HAWX Wikia)


	10. Sandstorm Part 2 Additional Recon

Riyadh, Saudi Arab

December 4th 2026, 7.00pm

"Here it is Mrs. Ritsuko, plans changed"

Her Arabic advisor briefed her as she closed her temporary accommodation, she make her way to the ramp where here planes prepped, "The intel we receive is still vague, there is a lot more we don't know about this big turrets", "Yes, I'm listening you colonel!" She nodded as she grab two chocolate bars for her and advisor which he rise his hand don't need a snack now, "Our UAV that sent last night pick up heavy noise from the complex we show to you yesterday, intel reports were destroyed by it, don't know what's happened there so I ask the attack to be postponed until we are really sure about this", "They ask me to do another recon, yes?" He nodded by that, "I got to admit captain, yes this doesn't make much sense for manned recon plane but your technology were superior than anything we have, the base commander with request of our ministry just let in Navy and CIA technicians to make sure your aircraft able to observe safely without any electronic interference, that should let you get the clearer picture of the Stonehenge, they are working on it now"

They reach the ramp illuminated by moonlight and light tubes on the ground that lit up the base allows for clearer view of Saudis F-15Es and Typhoons on other ramp, right in front of her were several heavy lifting vehicles manned crews from the Ike and CIA technicians fitting EWP of unknown contents, two pods on both intake pylons, one SNIPER pod and a gadget she never saw before, two High-band AN/ALQ-99 pods and a special countermeasures to her plane, more than that, its inner flap stabs were swapped with Block IV model for some reason, slight longer flight time and reduced RCS, this gonna be one hell of a recon op she thought. "Your flight route will take you by Damman to the loyalist controlled Bushehr before straight north to Yazd, then you can back to your ship. Good luck, captain!" he salute her done the same to him before he leave, nearby her plane were two pilots talked to each other as they watch her plane modified extensively, a blonde woman flyer looked around 35-37 instead a man in his 36, accompanied by another younger fly woman with bluish black split up hair, oddly enough she had japanese facial feature like her. Felt baffled, she walk to the two try to get along with them, "Uu..hi there, you too for a recon?", "We? Recon? Yeah, Flying a machine next to yours.." The blonde point to right of her folded Rhino where an iluminated dark gray unknown F-15 model prepped by AF and CIA technicians with CFT and EWP, it has no markings, no tailcode, no numbers, nor any paintings or writings, it has canards canted diagonally upward but not the oversized like the typical S/MTD, but rather small swept back that not even one from F-16AFTI, its main and tail wings design were not a single present combat aircraft used, its pointy backward, just like the Block IV Super Hornet, only more wing area nearly to the Raptor, the later has its exhaust nozzles used by this Eagle too.

She didn't know what's this plane but seeing the women with her flying this, soon catch in her head the two women were HAWX pilots, a highly classified AF squadron known by DoD to flying nearly any types of aircraft the world bring to the table, experimental vehicles and even few soviet aircrafts "In case this the last time we meet..." The blonde girl extend her hand to the sailor in flight gears, "The name is Cynthia Fitzgerald, based on...Elmendorf", "I'm...Ritsuko of..", "Your clan name?" The bluish black hair woman asked slightly surprised, "Oh darn...its...Akizuki. 7th Air Wing" she shook their hands, "You?", "Oh...Major Jenny Wright, Borrizo Air Station" the split haired girl introduced herself, from the Italian Gracemeria Air Station at Sicilia, Italy, currently housed mixture of US, Italian and German air wing in attempt to counter and or hunt down Blatnoi, "You too came all the way from Alaska and Italy here...its that Missile shield we're dealing with right now, isn't it?", "Yeah, not much we know about this gun network, one thing top men told us is the turrets effective range were up to Riyadh but they don't have balls yet to start the war. A ballistic artillery shell that blow up like atomic bomb in mid-air" Cynthia explained, "Yep, one bad luck brian flying nearby and he'll neverbe seen again forever, no way we gonna survive that" Wright added, "There should be a way to avoid it, right?", "Good things is...firstly, its five days before its testing shots, secondly, if it do shooting, we have a half minute to lay low under angles 2 until the shake is gone, they say the shooting angles were still limited...for now", "Alright...that's better" Ritsuko said, deeply disbelieve, "Ma'am, Ready to go!" One of the crew called.

7.15pm

Two boeing multipurpose war planes were headed northeast from the main saudi air force base. Its the calm before the fiercest sandstorm they'll about to deal with, the invisible one hitting the Golden gate bridge is among other few WMDs the CIA had guessed its existence. "Pegasus flight, AWACS Sky eye, change to angles 4, maintain your course", "Pegasus 1-1, Solid copy" Ritsuko answered as she comply lower her plane just a thousand feet from where she was, an E-3D Sentry of the 3rd Wing monitored the mission from their mission space in the capital, circling around the downtown safe from the frontline, the F-15ACTD (Augmented Combat Technology Demonstrator, AC2 F-15S) fly close to the Super Hornets rear starboard side, both planes flying a Mach air speed, 2 minutes time of flight to Damman, "Cross traffic from Riyadh and Dubai is green, normal pace, maintain airspeed", "1-2 is understood, Sky eye"

Multiple shots zinging around the city, thumping streets and concrete wall of modernized urban of an Iranian city with russian 7.62 projectiles.

Twenty men cell mixture of US and Loyalists raided the bordering city of Abadan full on gun blaze with civilians in mix, large twenty Army ODA, USMC 1st Reconnaissance Battalion led by 1st Lt. Nathan Vatz with Kurdish Peshmergas and Loyalist iranian raging around with the old AK-103 with a mix of Kobra sight of US NV Adaptor and SVD with Leupold 14x scope, old standards refreshed by the Iraqi military against the regime forces bring up the modern AK-12, "Sea Goblin this is Gladiator 1-1, we're going hot with Mini Guns around your 20, do us a favor sweep the area from RPGs and heavy weapons, over" above the city were four HQ-107A Triakis unmanned helicopters rock up 7.62 miniguns to rooftops of the city for RPGs and Snipers, "Copy that, Gladiator 1-1, Goblin 1 Actual out" Vatz ended.

Far west of the chaotic city were the 15th Special Operations Battalion sniper and scout duo with the McMillan TAC-50 Heavy Sniper Rifle plus 20x scope with Thermal Adapter providing sniper cover against enemies threatening the helos in and out of the moonlight, "Heads up, RPG on the Window, Left of the target!" The scout directed the shooter, to the window by the building left of one he looked at, middle window of the west wing side of the structure, the RPG guy were about to load up the rocket to its muzzle, then an explosion occurred nearby shocked him for a moment before he flip up the sight of the launcher and aim it to the chopper nearby, then his head splat blood outside and to the drilled wall behind him as he thrown hard back and dropped down already lifeless, the sniper slid the handle upward and backward ejecting the empty case before pull it forward then downward back chambering another faster burning propelled 50. BMG round for other target. The assaulters progress were halted, they have to evacuate nearby civilians from the city before the bad guys thinking about shooting innocents, "Counting fifteen more to go! Gladiator 1-3 and 2-4 will stray around looking for other civics, out"

Far away from Abadan, northeast of Bushehr heading to the ghost town Shiraz, two US fighters on recon mission has passed the loyalist base, there were three F-14As on the airstrip on stand by in case the recon planes were compromised, "Okay, we're approaching the Capital, IDEM is on stand by" Ritsuko's WSO commed up, "IDEM green light, stand by for roll" Wright reported from the backseat of the F-15 operating the ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance), "Pegasus flight, Sky Eye, additional recon team is already on the scene, see if you can corroborate with them, maintain radio silence", "Hooya, Sky eye, dropping to angle 1" she replied, maneuvering her plane to drop diagonally downward before heading to the original course.

A ten balaclava covered men cell of Tier 1 operators getting out the dead city of Yazd aboard two modified GMVs (Ground Mobility Vehicles), a version of HUMVEE for deep reconnaissance and Infil/Exfil missions stripped of armor platings and weapons in exchange for speed and agility, featuring additional one powerful but very quiet motor and high tech surveillance equipment necessary for long ranger observation, lead vehicle were boarded by four GST operators with one British SAS manning the multi-vision observation turret, his other two mates were with three Delta operators trailing behind, "Bravo 1 this is Ghost Lead, ETA to checkpoint Wesson, 3 mikes and split up, check in when reached checkpoint Kirwin and reach OP 1, how copy?" The leader of Fireteam Delta called the trail car, "Roger Ghost lead, All copies, ready to roll!". The two HUMVEEs humming through the flat rocks on its top speed 100 miles per hour, straight north to CP Wesson marked on the FBCB2 (Force Battle Command Brigade and Below) military tracker on the GMVs middle dashboard, as well visible on the ten men Augmented Reality modified Oakley glasses, "Fireteam, Sky eye, have two new friendlies for Nap, you might want to collaborate with them", "10-4 mate, we'll advise when we got to the OP" replied the lead SAS on the front car, its driver rise his left hand showing index and middle finger to the guys behind, "Bravo 1, 2 mikes, confirm, mate?", "Roger, 2 mikes". Looking back to the FBCB2, three OPs were marked, OP 1 is on the east the closest one around three clicks, OP 2 is south the furthest one of nine clicks and 3 were west of the Stonehenge set around six clicks, "Check gear everybody, once we're on Wesson, walk and fill up OP 2 and provide eyes on us and the target, ROE is fire when fired, I deem mission fail if you do otherwise or alerted, comprende?", "Roger Ghost lead".

2 minutes passed with no more radio voices, the front GMV stopped dismount two Ghost operators, their combat packs and suppressed weapons of two modernized M4A1 that has the M16 length heatshield only revealing its Surefire suppressor as well a weapon case carrying the M200 Intervention Heavy sniper rifle and its three kits of the 20x scope, Harris bipod and the suppressor, the second guy brought a small pack carrying multi-vision adapter for the M200, the vehicles leave soon as all gears disembarked, Staff Sergeant Brandon Ramos, Ghost Delta Team sniper is the one go with the hardened sniper case on his back while his friend SFC Justin Tasker, teams Assaulter, carried the experimental adapter, while the brits SAS and the ODD AR must be integrated with the modern standard GPNVG-18 strapped to their OpsCore K-Pot, Ghosts one were just Modified Oakley with already allows for FLIR, NV, and EMF, simply their NV also a thermal imagers at the same time, "Damn, Esse. Look at that silhouette!" Ramos bit gasped to see eight tall poles jutted out from far behind the sandy hills, the turrets hits norther arabian airspace like General Derrick parker said to them back at Bragg.

Suddenly the two heard a very faint jet noise above the sky, "Pegasus 1-1 to Fireteam, we're inbound to take a Nao, how copy?" A female voice heard on their headset. "Roger, pegasus flight. Stand by, one half mike for our OP filled in, over" replied Capt. Matt Jenkins, the Team leader GST Team Delta on their way to CP Ceres which led to OP 3, "Copy, have eyes on your progress, well begin our job ASAP and share to your system. Out!" Cynthia ended, she stray away right side on the same angles 3 while her flight lead go to Angles 5 left side, recon what ever they can reckoned. Below them were Brandon and Justin already has their OP set to go, scanning for activity and act as security while OP 1 monitor the area, OP 2 linked up with one for data assessment, hopefully find a way to crush the stone, "Bravo 1 here, we've passed Kirwin, another check in coming soon once we set up", "Tango 1 here lad, we've also passed Ceres, now we're to OP 3, out!"

"Motherhell! Look at those turrets!" Wright too exclaimed with what she saw both by her own eyes and the IDEM cam on FLIR mode.

On Abadan, the joint US, Loyalist iranian and Kurdish fighter has freed the town, 15th Battalion sent their Fastbacks to evacuate the civilians to Umm Qasr, nothing left but dead regime soldiers in and outside structures, four Triakis drones were somewhere within Kuwait refueling and re arming before called back to the town, "Assault team, this is C2, stand 2, extraction is inbound to your 20", "Copy, stand 2. What's the TOT? Over" vatz question isn't responded, just as he about to called "Sea Goblin, this is Gladiator 8, TOT 30 Seconds escorting jeeps for the loyalist and our Peshmerga buddies", one of the Crye ACUPAT ODA tell that in Kurdish to the eight fighters.

Coming from Al-Basrah were four HQ-107A Triakis helicopters, two of it were armed with 7.62 Mini-guns and the other were configured with panels for up to six operators sit in, ahead of the unmanned transports were three Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4 Jeeps driven by Iraqi special forces through the main road that takes through the city gate, security on south of Abadan were tightened by US Snipers with SVD have their eyes 360 of their current location, in a market square just two blocks east of the main gate.

The two planes circling the Stonehenge has photographed four shots from different angles and transmit it to the E-3D over Riyadh, the Jolly roger has with them the photo of the Airstrip empty of activity except technicians and heavy utility vehicles transporting parts to the turret and the central dome, the recon team on the ground has photographed the transport for the parts, electronics and other components for the now nine targets.

"Op is Compromised, I say again : Op is Compromised. Command says we've seen enough, pull off the AO, I repeat : pull of the AO, enemy is alerted from west" Sky Eye contacted the air and ground team, ground team began to detach and packing their surveillance equipments, on OP 3 the four operator encountered six regime soldiers with AK-12 investigating the GMVs, "OP 3 is compromised..." Matt called up before he hand signal the men to take out the enemy soldiers, they aim their silenced M4A1 by the Micro T1 Red dot sight and shot controlled burst to the unaware fighters of the fatal peril nearby them, killing all six of them as the recon team efficiently shoot some rounds to whatever top body they aim, hitting both head, throat and chest, "OP 3, come in!" Tango 9 called in worried the worst, "We're going to Wesson by Ceres, out!".

OP 2 saw four men closing to the egressing OP 1 team, behind the two scouts were three dead regime soldiers didn't get a chance to fire a single shot, "Bravo 1, this is Delta 3, you have four trailers with AKs, Take em out or Pronto, your call" Brandon whisper by the mic, "Tango 8-7 copy four of them, have your wanker friends rush with kits to the Car, we'll take them out" the SAS operator replied, Brandon readied his index finger by the trigger of the CheyTac rifle aimed to the rear soldier, "I take out the rear guy". Two SAS operators proned to the sandy hill a click before the GMV, the two can see clearly their prey, "You first, mate!" One of them called in, Brandon take a deep breath and pulled the trigger sending the lightweight 50. BMG round to hit through the head of the intended target, the splat and body dropped noise caught the other three whose then gunned down by the 5.56 rounds from the suppressed L85A2 that has CompM4 sight plus an Angled grip. "Bravo 1 here, engine is on, ready to roll to Point Wesson by Kirwin!" The lead SFOD-D commed up by the driver seat of the GMV, "We just passed CP Ceres, stand 2 on CP Wesson!" The lead GST called up, all two vehicles were on their way to pick up the two spotter two minutes journey from where they observe the mission objective, Justin watch the surrounding as best as he can while his upper ranked friend detach the suppressor, bipod, and its Leupold scope flip close both lenses before properly pack it all to the case, he shrugged it to his back and began to walk with Tasker handed him the HK416C with Osprey make suppressor and Magpul CTR stock and Holosight, other than simple sight were just a PEQ-15 ATPIAL by the left rail that about to used not even once tonight. Far ahead above them were two jets on angles 2 leaving home without anybody noticing.

"Shit! I got four blips from vector 300 and rapidly getting to us!" Wright notified, "Let's fly lower!" The FO of the Rhino added, by then the two tilt downside and pull the flight stick a bit, tilt upside again and level the aircraft once the altimeter read 1000 feet, lowest will be 500 feet but the hills were jutted above 480, surely don't want to risk their intel for some NOE circus, the four blips Wright noted we're four Su-30MK Flankers on Mach 1.5 from the nearby occupied Esfahan which have close eye on the turrets, "I'll see if I can mess around with their electronics", "Okay, do it!" Ritsuko granted calmly, The chasers has their radar blank, it detect nothing, nor the heat signature, flying blind south towards the resistance held terfitory, on their right far ahead were the dead city Yazd which turns out to be the GSTs forward base with the SFOD-D and the SAS, once they passed the city, they would split up, the F-15ACT/D would change heading to southwest by Bushehr again before back to Riyadh while the Navy flight officer would take her F/A-18F southeast to Gulf of Oman back to the Ikes battlegroup. The blips has gone from their radar, the four iranian flankers were heading back to Esfahan, the five minutes flight has the two Boeing jets to split up, "We'll see you again someday!" Cynthia and Wright looked to the naval aviators from their seat salute them before they leave due to Bushehr in increased speed, she too fired up her AB as she turned southeast directly to her boat.

Gulf of Oman

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

8.22pm

Lieutenant Berkeley Olson, Ritsukos WSO, laying on his room looking out news bulletin by his Smartphone, his FO in her own room were looking out news bulletin on her VAIO laptop on her desk plus a milkshake and some fries.

Vatz still has his flat desert beige flight suit strapped with same beige assaulter vest, right hand grabbed the Multicam OpsCore helmet and other one grabbed the Steel heatshield of the AK-103. Walk through hallways on his side were Admiral Geoff Strannix of the Ike.

"Okay Lieutenant Vatz, here is the deal. It turns out the occupation at Abadan were meant to be their one step closer for setting their foot on Iraq, why's that? We'll found out soon enough. For now on stand by for call, we have a cell within the mainland and you're going to greet them"

"When do we start?"

"Tomorrow at ten, get some rest LT"

Arabian Sea

Approaching USS Bainbridge (Ticonderoga Class)

8.30pm

Four special forces conduct HAHO jump from a V-125 to the open cold sea below, chute were opened properly and the four were descended slowly for about half minute before plunged to the calm water, a RHIB arrived to pick the soldiers with nearly iluminated shoulder patch and take them to the Bainbridge for cover fire to the empty island where a world war relic of prison still stand, six watchlights were installed scanning the surrounding dry land. "Alright everybody, are those boys were on their way yet?" The OGA asset David Foster commanded inside the war room with two big monitors revealing the satellite feed of the mission area and three allied units, SEAL Team 6 Hammer 1 and 2, and the Ghost Recon, "The Ghosts were on stand by, sir!" One of the radar operator replied, inside were another female asset and two private contractors in rather casual clothing among staffs including the two CIAs in either AOR1, Multicam or Blue marine camo, one has black leather pants and white sports jacket with red stripes along the arm, he has half american-asian facial feature adorned with a messy auburn hair, his friend having a beige khakis and black and blue skin jacket, blonde brooklyn guy with four watches on both hands holding two dossiers listing name 'I. Martha, Yoko', and another one handed over to the Auburn guy with listed name 'W. Clarkson, Gabriel'. "Senator Clarkson? I thought he's returned by swedish during the war" the auburn asked again, "There is turns two senators somewhere, Mr. Dunway. But...ah nevermind, well talk it later...Right now..." David looked to the big monitors revealing two fireteams on shore and the other one aboard the RHIB parked west of the small prison island, "This is Hammer 1, on the spot", "Hammer 2 ready for press", "Ghosts is on scene", "Alright...son, begin the havoc!", "Aye-aye, sir!" One of the computerist began typing something, then he press the 'Enter' button.

Six watchlights losing its power quick, sudden darkness blanketed the already dark land by no moon light enlighten the area, "Let's go!". Ten cloacked soldiers began hitting the ground round up the fort before assault to it, enemy communication is down, all electric devices were offline, nobody knows what's really happened here, on the Bainbridges rear landing pad were four GST operators slowly crouch to the mattresses overlooking the island, on their hands were the flat desert new standard Heckler Koch Mk. 11 Mod 0 with CTR Stock, Suppressor and the field tested 14x Thermal sniper scope, the Harris bipod were readied as they lay down the mattresses with Navy Spotter already waited them with Thermal rangefinder, "Ghost lead this is Torrie, first priority is hostiles top most" David called up, "Roger that". The on shore soldiers kneeled by the wall waiting up, then loud tracer occurred above them, "Stand 2, Hammer!" One of the Ghost called in, then another faint tracer occured by two guard tower to other both side, "You're good to go!", by that the five rope gun were fired to the wall above where six soldiers lay dead by the synchronous sniper attacks from the Ticonderoga class vessel south of the island, uncloacking five GPNVG fitted SEAL Team 6 operators in tan flight suit armed with HK weapons, three soldiers with Holographic sight, PEQ-15 ATPIAL and Angled grip equipped 10in 416, two more with the suppressed Mk.48 that has G36 sight with Thermal adapter, ATPIAL and Collapsible buttstock, the five set to another synchronized attack to the five guards on the wall opposite of the prison complex, a second later the shot is fired killing all five guards in one shot, the rest of the SEAL Mako unit were climb up the wall with two 416s, two Mk.48s and a 417, "Let's roll!". Assaulters with 416 climbed down the wall to the complex comprised of three large buildings and two courtyard in between, it was total dark bellow, with the five cloacking operators reached the ground below the enemy wouldn't know what would hit them, considerable number of enemy grunts were appeared on the two courts with just Kalashnikov as flashlight were disrupted by the jammer, patrols outside the fences covering the complex continued their patrol with traditional torch pointed forward just to make sure he don't hit to things, supply crates also placed by the wall and fences which the DEVGRU could use as cover but even so, if the shooting started, the SEALs doesn't stand a chance of survive, sync shot is utmost but even so it too still fragile, if there to be some shots it better be inside or more better to fire no more rounds tonight, central building is where they going, both north and south side were the large two door gates with two guards still baffled by the sudden blackout, above them were two SEAL gunners with P226 suppressed pistols aimed to the two guards, one guard by the two door entry to the target building stand still confused with what should he do, he weren't able to react quickly when the two gate watchs were fallen to the ground, then everything is blurred, darkened, then finally total black. Two SEALs hide the three bodies to the guard post right of the gate, "Entry 1 is cleared!" One of them whispered, "2 is good to go!".

Five of them carefully entered the target building addorned with beige ceramic floor and white wall and ceiling, front of them get to three separate ways, another two hallways before the staircase, everything is normal for the enemy patrols and everything goes well for the Hammers, Foster and his team could do nothing but watch the two small assaulter teams raid the building from both sides, detail from the satellite feed confirmed two VIPs and eight enemies inside, feed from soldiers helmet HD camera shows nobody they met, nothing happened so far, "The Cheesecakes is on the Buffet two second mess hall to west" David said to the Team 6, "Hmph...I wanna go home now, did I've told you that my wife is good on baking cheesecake, Lambert?" Dunway teased, "Goddammit, stop tease me" the blondie chuckled, Foster couldn't help but chuckle with the two contractors. Two Hammer 2s from the north door climbed up the staircase led exactly to the Hallway with six rooms, one are where their objectives are, other rooms were high ranking officers on briefing or other kind of talks, a tiny tube contain special chemical were brought by each ten operators, a tiny straw were connected to the tube so it can be slipped through the keyhole, the sleeping chemicals can be used without have to worry it breach outside uncontrollable, one of the SEAL pressed a tiny button by the vest strap, short vibration occured from their vest which by that the five operators wore their gas mask for in case, the chemical then injected to the target room where inside are two soldiers and two hostages, it take less than a half minute for the four peoples inside to fallen asleep, the injector check for traps before picking the lock and silently open the door, coming from the other side of the hall were the three Hammer 1s began to inject their sleeping gas to random four buildings with enemies inside, "Sir, twenty seconds before light up" one of them noted, "Hostiles inside were all neutralized, they better hurry the hell outta there!" David murmered as he watch in worry, his feeling were numb like everyone else inside, he can see two soldiers from the Bainbridge began carry their objectives through where the three came from, surprisingly as they reach outside they come up to a lone guard surprised to see the room he about to go were light up, he also baffled to see the doors opened by itself, there he saw two floating bodies, woman and a man in black suit, then everything is blurred as one heavily equipped soldier suddenly revealed from nowhere right in front of him before everything is completely dark for him. The one of the still cloacking SEAL immediately drag the body to the guard post they put three in, two ropes were jutted down from the wall, first the sleeping bodies, then the man who shoot last before the rest four, ropes were redeployed to outside for the now twelve americans exfil the island, a RHIB were ready for the nine, other three were already on their way to Bainbridge, inside the monitor room were peoples cheering up heavily, Foster and his team silently celebrate the success of his op, saving the US Senator and his OGA friend, "Yoko, its time for your day-off" he smiled.

Extra notes

\- Joint assault by US and Peshmerga is inspired on accounts by Green Berets veterans during the operations at Iraq with locals.

During the invasion of Kuwait, Green berets were sent to link up with local tribes and gaining their trust before staging assault to enemies with the locals, its accounted that they worked frequently with the known hardy Peshmerga tribes during that time and the 2003 Iraq invasion as well other iraq operations.

This were also traced back to the Vietnam War in 60s to 70s.

\- Like in my previous chapter, Alan Dunway and Wesley Lambert are originally the duo VSSE agents on the 'Time Crisis 3', they were the main ones either on single or two players mode, single player can choose to use Alan or Wesley on PS2 by connecting the controller to port 1 (Alan) or 2 (Wesley).

Here, they were the alternate version of the original characters, they were OGA (Other Governments Agency) alongside David Foster.

\- I put Ghost veteran David Foster to CIA due to unknown wherabouts after GRAW, he weren't appeared on the EndWar unlike Marcus Brown, Mike Kim, Nick Salvatore and Paul Smith in the EndWar. Derrick Parker too didn't made additional appearance after GRAW, Alicia Diaz made another one in the sequel novel of the Future Soldier, Ghost Recon Choke Point, after depart from the US Army, she were part of CIA SAD to RV with the Hunter Team in Yemen.

\- Amy Pitt is the cameo enemy in the Ace Combat Zero in mission 'The Final Overture'. She were flying B-2A as the escort for the XB-0, she only appears in higher difficul level (Hard or Expert), she were spawn very far behind after the Espada squadron were all taken out alongside with other two aircrafts depending on your ace style (Merc, Soldier or Knight).

According to the Assault Record, she were part of the Osean agency (CIA) undercover within Belkan Air Force, later, high ranked belkan military officer revealed she were a double agent, prompting the agency to put her under Level 1 surveillance.


	11. The Round Table

Got some grand update here, so if you tuned to this fic, thanks for stay tuned and i'm very sorry for the long damn thing. I've currently worked on an Need For Speed Fanfiction, so again...

Very Sorry! Very Sorry!

Got it updated to three more chapters, but it's still an Experimental so corrections is due, Thank you! :)

* * *

Tucson International Airport, Arizona

December 4th 2026, 5.32pm

"I'm alright mom, its okay in here!" Major Alex Hunter said talking to his mother by the satellite phone given by Crenshaw some days before he get to the HAWX, "How was danny there?" Then he were stopped on his walk looking to the window by his right where he could see a new type of civilian airbus parked by the terminal area, he were looking to the Airbus A501 (AC3 R-501 Rinchodon) of PAN-AM, a new animal looking transport aircraft bearing design based on the Tigershark genus from its fuselage shape, its tailwings on top of the stabilizer and main delta wings similar shape to the tailwings with four twin engines planted into the lower wing area with enough power to undertook journey as far as moscow in two hours, it weren't the only 501 on the airport, the one of Singapore Air were flying above west he assumed the destination as Changi, then there were another one of the Emirate Air ready to leave the airport, "Tracy just dropped from the PAN-AM aircraft?" He asked resuming his steps, "Oh great! I'm gonna give them a call tonight, right now I'm being posted for another work" then he paused again, "Alright mom...I love you..okay, bye!", the sat-phone were put back to his uniforn pouch strapped with flight gears and G-Suit.

"Major Hunter!"

"Major Haruka..."

"Have we started yet?" Asked the woman pilot already outfitted with her flight gears and G-Suit same to her squadron leader she talked to, "Nope, change of plans, We're not gonna be flying abroad yet, we just tasked for a one time routine air patrol, just tomorrow. We'll be flying to the mexican border area B7R located between San antonio and Chihuahua, recently there is been an attempt to smuggle drugs from Monterrey to an undiscovered spot in arizona by military transport, we gonna catch one of them tomorrow from the air, CBP and DEA is now cooperated with the Army of US and Mexico to get some on the ground making sure nobody made it through the tunnel further north", "Drug op? While the Federations were at it?", "This would gain support from inside, says they cheap down the price tag in return they would help the feds get inside...believe it or not, Major, they say we'll catch one or two fighters without or with federatiom markings, and they will be armed and piloted pretty well, for now our first order of business will be a routine CAP with standard Vipers to Ciudad then to Albuquerque before back here again..." He paused for a second before back from his watch, "30 mikes from now".

"All units scramble, I say again All units scramble! Unidentified joyriders from 160 to 310, no comms respond, unclassified bandits suspect hostile intent. Launch the alert, Launch the alert"

Area B7R, USA-Mexico border

Angles 8

December 5th 2026, 9.51am

Two tyndall raptors glide in group of other three F-16Cs from the Mountain Home AFB, Idaho in separate two groups, "This is AWACS Citadel, detected multiple heat signatures from vector 170, looks like they were going straight up to you", "Mobius 1 Lima Charlie, we saw em from here, spank them hard if they engaged" Alex commed up, he has four AIM-9X-3s on the inner wing hardpoints with other two inside the side bay plus six AMRAAMs in the lower bay, others were eight Sidewinders and AMRAAMs, ahead of them were ridges recently discovered to be rich with minerals, mining were not yet done as it sit right in the borderline, political were severe even if its six years after the devastating World War III, wrong move and it will be the second rebellion, "Mexican squadron will scramble from the base near Torreon, fire when fired!", "Copy, we're on em!"

Far on the other side of the ridges were fifteen in three separate wing formation of dark gray Su-35S Flanker-Es with round of gold stars marking by the left wing with eight R-74s and R-77s on both, "Target all air squadron scrambled the airspace, give the room to the paratroopers transport", "Si, capitan. Weapons hot, no mercy!". In no time AL-41 powerplants in their crafts has brought them above the mineral resources, heavy radio interference from it prevent radio communications up to 2.000 feet from it, If ejected they will have a hard time to go home, more unfavorable for the Feds as joint US and Mexican team were patrolling the area, might be dead or end up in the Albuquerque state prison.

"Holy shit! fifteen?" One of the Viper shocked

"This is the US Air National Guard to the unidentified aircraft approaching the Airspace of Texas, you are unauthorized to entry without clearance. Cha...Whoa!"

Hunter were cut off when the Flankers passed them in high speed while also firing the 30mm guns

"Oh my god! We're engaged, slap those motherhubards!" He announce and pull his flight stick downward heading to the passing planes, "Mobius 2, weapons hot!" She said as she banked left from the group now sprawling around picking their targets.

"Viper 3, engage!"

"Viper 9, engage!"

Hunter has quickly approached the first todays prey, its about to turn right in airspeed around 600 knots unaware what's really behind him, he fired some machine gun rounds to it befitting his distance to the federation aircraft, hit all of it to the right engine housing which eventually tumble the powerplants to the ground as its about to pull himself to the higher sky. "...I'm going down..." Statics end up the radio communications from the bailed out pilot, his viper were tumbled in flames before blown up entirely, "National Guard scrambled three F-15s from ellington, less than three Mikes", "Roger barn, but are ther..." Haruka cut off as she pulled Cobra maneuver letting slip two trailers and level back against them, launching simultaneously two AIM-9 heatseeking missiles streaking to the Exhaust and other one slammed the rear sting housing the Flankers RWR which also tumble both engines, eventually her pursuers ejected and if lucky they were captured for chit chat with CIA, "...any closer...support?" She panted by the High G she just done, "Two fifty mikes of three Delphinus drones from Torreon, doesn't really makes difference. Like it or not, they'll be there" their field commander replied, "Alright..less than four M and that's still good!" She relieved from her G-force, steadily steered right 180 degrees after a group of three bogeys passed her with trailing vipers. Hunter on the other side of the clash must deal with four Flankers right in very front of him, gun range, "God, I hope I won't regret this!" He murmured as he about to launch two Sidewinders, sending all available on his right wing to the so close preys obliterated beyond recognition with debris he braved through as he switched and fired his machine gun to the third bandit left of his view diagonally zigzag with the other four, some went through the rightside engine while others missed or hitting the control surfaces, thick black smoke and tiny parts coming out from the right engine, nearly endangering himself persistently going after the remaining in his sight flying wildly still trying to shake him off.

Barrel rolling and sudden turnings weren't helping against the HAWX pilot, still with his gun aimed to it and firing when his target a bit staticstic, suddenly (and stupidly he thought) his prey about to pulled cobra maneuver at the same time he pressed the trigger, although his shots holed the engine section which would tumble off the two AL-41s, his nerve still clinched to keep the trigger pressed even though trainings and combat experiences clearly state that split second gun press is enough for kill, as the result the originally Venezuelan Su-35S were ripped to two pieces cut from the right rear wing to the Gsh-30 bay, second and largest near misses for Alex today, a plane wrecks instead munitions shot to him. "Mierda! How come we lost seven planes already?!", "I don't know, Marco. That one in the raptor are absolute Puta!". Somewhere around were Haruka chasing one Flanker trying to get the F-16 flying wildly as it trying to get away from his hunter, "No good, he's right behind!", "I got your six, Viper 3, Stand 2!", she assured as she fired her machine gun to her prey, splats of fluids and tiny shattered parts hit her canopy not strong enough to crack it, her prey still flying normally, eventually its slows down and spool up fires from both exhaust, the occupant ejected safely some seconds before the plane blown up to pieces, "Thanks for the save!", "You owe me some, Margaritas!", "Roger! Blended, no salt!" He simply replied as he turned right upward with her follow him back to the mining area within the B7R, "Heads up! Additional bogeys from 173 to 325 at Mach 2 angles 7, 3 miles" Citadel reported from his E-3D over the Tucson, "Hey! Where's the Alert 5 gone? There's still many more bogeys here!", "Viper 1, Goodfellow, Mike one!"

It was the flight of five Afterburned F-15Es from the Ellington IAP flying on altitude 15.000 feet, has on their tail emblazoned a red ribbon and under it 'Air National Guard', "Counting five M2 Fulcrums with eight heat and radar tracking weapons, here we go, stay sharp!", "Goodfellow to Bone Arrows, we're now commence mission operations", the lead Strike eagle rolled his plane downward and dive onto the furball, there he were greeted by four Fed Flankers trying to shoot him down with an R-74 missile, he bravely still with Afterburner barrel rolled upward with flares fired behind, then he fired an axis of four AIM-120Fs to the four targets ahead, the R-74 missed him some inches from his Canopy and rightside stabilizer, his shots has no misses, "Break off, weapons free!" His wingman called up and break away from him, "Twelve bogeys to go! More coming in from 180, 8 miles!" Citadel called in. Hunter in the other side with Haruka gone after the remaining three Flankers breaking away from each other, "You go after left, I'm going straight!" Hunter ordered her, she turn left keep pace with her target now zigzag left and right, then rolled couple times before turned hard left and back to zigzag again which she could barely keep up with him.

Alex on the other hand have to deal with a target just turn the table on him, he were chased by now two Su-35s instead one, diving 20 degrees in 500 knots airspeed, "Oh shit! He's on me!" His wingman called in, he barrel rolled twice dumping flares and chaffs before suddenly pulled full 360 kulbit maneuver and full afterburner as the two. Federation Flankers were overshot and decided to full on getaway from him, leaving the gap that have him to open the side bay doors and resort to the remaining four AIM-9X-3 Sidewinders, in no time his targets were locked on, clear for trigger press, suddenly his wingman crossed ahead him with her trailer within range, making up three simultaneous shots of his heatseeking missiles, one of it rushed to her trailer while other two smashed the rear sting and through the left exhaust, ripping both to four wreckages falling down to the ground and for the third time two of it nearly crashed to him as he tilt 20 degrees rightside avoiding collision, "Damn! So close!" He grumped, he noticed an orange sprawls left of him, Haruka were getting away from it, "Thanks, Major!" She called him.

Goodfellow somewhere tried to saved an F-16 of two MiG-35s, the four dive in left their safe altitude of angles 10 straight to the harddeck of 2, right to the mining interference effect, quickly the strike eagle pilot fired the machine gun to the closest Fulcrum to him, the viper pulled up followed by the other one have his missile shot trashed, "Splash one! Splash one!" Goodfellows WSO exclaimed, the markless russian built frontline fighter has its control surfaces chopped of from where it should be, its barrel rolled slowly ang getting faster, the two occupants ejected leaving their vehicle to smash to the ridges below, "Dammit! I'm going down!", followed by a distant boom, the Viper he would save were shot down, statics filled up the comm at the same time the occupant bailed out from his burned Fighting Falcon, he also see the MiG attempt to turn hard right but too late, a white smoke trails smashed head on the engine housing areas, exploding it, leaving only the canopy area tumbled down in dizzying spins.

"This is Bone Arrow 2, airspace is secured, no blips!" Called in a female pilot, her F-15E opposite direction to her wing leader passed above him and dive down formed portside rear to Goodfellow. "Citadel to all planes, Scope is clear...Crisis Center requested you to Stand 2 until further instruction", "Mobius 1 10-4, I knew he were not us go home so quickly just yet". The remaining planes got formed to Hunters formation circling around the ridges on angles 5, "I thought there would be Delphinuses coming here, Citadel, what's the status with the R-102?" Haruka asked, "Torreon base lost contact with their drones five miles northeast from their base...for now on we have three raptors from Holloman inbound to your ai..."

"...What was that..." Someone cuts in.

Silent filled in their Op Airspace then.

"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Javelin 3 down!"

Then followed by another statics.

"Citadel this is Mobius 1, requesting sitrep"

No response.

Then someone humming a tune to their headphones, "Mappy?!" Haruka baffled to the fact a girl humming a Mappy song by their frequency.

"Hey! Multiple blips from west!"

And it was a crimson red CFA-44 with four Tu-3 Vultures with a lense on its nose. "This is General Keating of the Crisis Center taking over the command of this operation...AWACS Citadel were destroyed by un PID enemy, no one survived. Destroy the remaining bandits, don't let them get any further into the United States. Engage!" He said calmly but a bit stern. By that the seven aircrafts turned west directly to the turns out to be source of the humming, the Fandance itself. "Mach 2 angles 10, 8 miles" Alex noted, his and Harukas F-22 were one of few Raptors with independent IFF systems kept them from relied too much on AWACS, considering that he just lost Citadel by a mysterious attack not even the ANG or Crisis Center figured out what's really happening he surely quite happy the first time flying his current plane until now "5 miles and closing rapidly!" He noted again, he doesn't feel doing it right as he about to readied his missile, something far out of usual, "I'm going for the Fox Three!" Viper 1 fired his last AMRAAM, the eight seconds travel were stopped to four when suddenly a Vulture light up Red laser to it, "Holy Shit!" Haruka shocked with that, the Fandance just fly idle like nothing had happened, "Let's get to its six o'clock, see if we can slap her hard", "Mob 1, Viper 1, We're right behind ya!". But it went awry, the drones fired the laser to the US planes sliced the missiles, which also the F-16 and two F-15s as the group launched barage of missiles to her head on, "Hopman has been hit...Gah...he's bailed out!", "Yeah I can see that Bone Arrow 2, stick to what we're about to do!" Her wing leader assured, though himself actually not sure about it, "I have five R-102 drones inbound from Cannon, do whatever it takes to destroy that plane", "Roger General, any way to ease up our job here?" Goodfellow asked, "The drones seems programmed to fire the laser to any incoming missiles to her planes, meaning you have to destroy all four drones before you could take her out!".

By that Alex leave the formation and gone after the jet powered drones, there he saw a neat diamond vertical formation around the target plane, he paced up to the group to gun range, he still not sure about firing a missile, "Might worth trying!" He thought, as the CFA-44 maneuvered hard right trying to shook him off the four drones perfectly keep up with the diamond formation around it which awed everybody witnessing it, the turning radius were too small for raptor to match, opening a wide gap between him and his target, Haruka catch up to him with bay doors storing AMRAAMs opened and readied all six to the drones, "You sure about that, Major?" He look to his rear portside, "Just shoot down the drones first!" She said confident as she pressed the missile trigger, sending an axis of four radar tracking missiles to the drones in six seconds travel, with ease the Vultures evaded all the missile, others tried the same but also taken no hit whatsoever, "I'm going in!". He's the only one who hasn't fire the second missile to the target even not the drones yet, he turn up his AB closing to the five planes now maneuvering up to the sky high, above Angles 10 and keep climbing idle which give a window for Hunter to fired his M61 Vulcan machine gun, bullets went through the exhaust and ripping the tail and main wings appart and tumbling it upward and slow it further before the gravity pull it downward again, the Fandance loop back down as it reach Angles 25 in turning rate nobody can match again, that is inhuman Alex thought seeing it.

The target plane opened its upper bay doors showing two MLRS like dispenser betwen the spine of the plane, and like the MLRS it do fired many missiles hard to evade, "Oh my God!" Her F-22 blared with warning tones, Haruka shocked to see so many missiles coming at her as she climb up approached the Fandance, she pulled the flight stick and power up her thrust to the max to get away from the kill zone, other two Strike eagles managed to flee the attack but not for the R-102s, all of it were destroyed in the kill zone left only to no change of four air power, the second Tu-3 were shattered by Alex again, the 30mm machine gun from the enclosed rightside cannon bay rip appart the torpedo shaped UAV and has it spun out of control to the earth far bellow, that happened just in time the three more targets leveld the aircraft in sudden, but he still managed to keep up, "Mobius 2, talk to me!", "I'm still here but I got heavy damage...weapon system is offline, lost all electronics...", he still pacing with the three targets now forming up side by side neatly, "Bone Arrow flight, respond!" He fired his last AIM-9X-3 to the third drone on the left side, the white smoke arched left to where its prey intended to go through by reading its control surface movement, precisely destroyed its target in one shot, "Right on your six!".

Behind him were the remaining two F-15Es with plenty missiles to use, "Mobius 2, depart the mission airspace to Tucson and check the damage of your craft!" Alex ordered her while trying to keep up with his targets, Haruka has her plane trailed with black smoke from both exhaust due to the missile attack, its a clear view for her to see her wingleader 2.000 feet abover her struggled to shot down the last drone accompanied the Mappy plane flying zigzag left, right, up and down to shake him off, only Alex whose so far able to keep up with it while the others were struggling to keep their pace, "Bone Arrow 1, fire your sidewinder!" Alex asked, the X-2 launched from the F-15s left wing streaked the skies and precisely hit the fuselage with guidance from the JHMCS of the WSO from the backseat, then their target suddenly pulled the Kulbit maneuver 180 degrees and fired the machine gun to her pursuers, the bullet screeched the skin of the evading F-22 tilting rightside and some split seconds later smashed the left engine by the intake of the F-15E leader a bit too late to react, the Crimson red aircraft were stopped and overtaken by the three, it uses full afterburner and flee west of the B7R airspace. "Goodfellow, Bone Arrow 2, what's your status?", he didn't replied, he looked many times outside to the fleeing plane and to the radar, both assured him its gone westward in high speed nearly Mach 3, "Goodfellow to Crisis Center...do you have eyes on our target?", "This is AWACS Eagle eye, confirmed target going west egress from the B7R...comm logs confirmed its going away from NORAD, All planes return to Tucson for debriefing", "Bone Arrow 1 10-4, Mob 1...my navigation and radar system is offline...everything else is okay but I don't wanted to lost to Mexico without green light...", "I know, are you wounded?, "That's 10-10, A-OK on other else", "Roger" Alex replied plainly, he steered his plane leftward, heading north back to the United States airspace with two F-15Es formed three ship wing due to Tucson, with Haruka supposedly landed already.

Tucson International Airport, Arizona

5.35pm

"Horseman 15, this is Tucson tower, you're clear for take off"

"Roger"

Alex and Haruka were onboard the A501 of the USAF for VIP transport, the weird plane were adorned in plain white with the AF logo and marking by the sloppy side part of the fuselage. Seated within the exclusive cabin of the 501-200 series were two more important personnels on the opposite side of the small fixed dining table filled with photographs and intel reports, Brigade General Todd Barry of the Joint Chief of Staff and General Joshua Keating himself looked furiated and confused. Atmosphere inside were not relieving. "The attack in the Round table...were a diversion...at Kennedy Space Center, yet none of us or our agencies could decipher it" Keating tell up what's stressed him, "Wh-Wait...What is the Round table?" Haruka whispered to her wingleader, "Its the circular ridges surrounding the wasteland right in the border between the US and Mexico, in other words... Its the mining area we have just sent and engaged within the Mexican airspace" Alex briefed her silently too, "Sir...diversion? Kennedy Space Station? What's going on here? Are the federation cover up a foreign squadron for Miami?" he asked, "Could be, Major, the multilateral space project Sephia II, involving NASA and JAXA (Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Association), I bet its related to the presidents Freedom Star program that still hyped today worldwide, or the history of our past that sooner repeat once again...I don't know really but..but my worry were now centered to the particular program and whatever the federation squadron did recently at the Round table is worried me to no end I honest" said the JSOC, "That's why you will be headed back to Tyndall...further briefing will be commenced on 8...dismissed" Keating finished, the two pilots get up from the seat and saluted the two Generals before went to the door behind them out to the second cabin with some other officers. On the table were the photographs of the whole project and the satellite shot of the space center, rockets, modules, and the Freedom star itself as well Profile photos of the austronauts from NASA and JAXA.

Extra notes

\- The B7R in this fic is made different from the original one, everythings on south were flipped to north, so basically, players start from north and the bogeys comes from south. :v I mean it

\- Brigade General Todd Barry is the alternate version for this fic of wingman of the Protagonist turned Antagonist Osean fighter squadron led by Anthony 'Bediever' Palmer, the Sorcerer. According to the Assault Record, after he walked out the B7R after shot down by Cipher, he were worked as the Tech Advisor for the OADF (Osean Air Defense Force).


	12. The shattered skies over the JFK Station

FOB Partridge/Tiger Cage

December 8th, 2026, 8.39am

"Man your position!"

Under attack

The FOB were attacked, North korean forces again trying to push the american back to south, the scene of an hour already began firefight were intense but at some point it isn't, "Hey, Rossie! Glad to see your marksmanship like in the old days!" One marine sniper working up his M21 EMR remarked Ross as he just claimed a headshoot eight fifty meters with his HK M110 (HK417), "Yeah, just like in the training camp" he said before he shoot anothees forehead six meters closer than his previous one, "Seriously, dude! But you join up Army after SEAL" the mariner asked when he shot anoter round, who happened back then to be in one mariner company couldn't help but baffle with his new affiliation, "I dunno, gotta admit an old friends thatbgoes in the Army" he replied. "This is Flash 1 to Partridge we have presents from DASC of two Vipers and an R-102 from one two five and one eight three, give us the numbers, over", DASC or Direct Air Support Center was basically the coordinator for the CAS objectives conducted by airpower available against targets logical or mission required, "Stand 2, multiple targets at civilian populated area, do not..I repeat : do not kill or destroy all PID undeserving" Ross replied as he aim the HK built AR-10 based marksman rifle to the village for killzone, the rifle has an ATPIAL both Laser sighting and SOFLAM feature integrated to its 12x scope, just aim the crosshair to the village area and when he heard a blip, "Partridge, Cobra 1-1, we have visual, going hot with mini guns, One half mikes inbound!". Until then the Joint Strike Forces were still hot with their weapons behind the wall, M240 and XMX in either Assault with or without the M320 and Marksman configuration, the shootout were undeniable for Cedric fried up the MARSOC employed SpecterDR XMX AR that it flashback him in Bagram in June 2018, constant and fierce Taliban attack each morning, he remembered about nearly full platoon of fresh men panicked with the rough morning greeting from numerous kalashnikov fire from 360, he chuckled with that memoria while still shoot three round burst to any attackers in olive green and red specks outside the wall, from the east he can hear faint noise of helicopters rotorblades raging the ground, "Civilian presence?", "Uu...unknown 1-1, but the open area is hostile bou coup, no reports of civics sighting, don't attack the building" Ross replied, it was awkward but then again the village they attacked from were supposedly populated, "Roger, machine guns gone switch hot!", then a mini gun fires coming from the east directed to the village north of the base billowing puffed dust around the village center, its a controlled shots making sure no high collateral damage, anything beyond broken windows and it dissatisfying his friend Ross. The two AH-1Z Vipers really done its job, the attack rate were dwindling for a minute before silence replaced the drama around, the helicopters stray away from the village eastward standing by.

"All callsign this is Barracuda 1-4 Actual, we're going to check out the village see how severe the collateral damage and hunt the remaining hostiles inside, over", "Barracuda 1-4 this is Dragon Buster 1-6 Actual, going with ya!", "10-4, All Gavial 1-5 standing by until called up, have an RQ-11 on standby...uu...anyone seen our bot?", "1-6 Charlie here...uu..we take your bot, sorry!", "Solid copy, holding position". Around twenty four JSF SOC (Spec Ops Capable) Marine Expeditionary Units were sent onfoot to the source of the initial attack, the village itself. Additional four Ghosts were preferable deployed with them, Major Ferguson, Pepper, 30K and Li, bring up the XMX like the mariners except for Ellison bring up the Mk.48 Mod 0 with combined Aimpoint T1 and 4x Magnifier that differ from five marines with the M240 or four with the M27 IAR, "Pepper, Li, wait here. Observe the spot for threats", "Hoah, sir!", Matilda grabbed the Rangefinder from her back as she prone to the grassy mud mound facing the dried plantation about 15x17, on its left were the muddy road the other twenty six JSFs marched on, pepper on her right put off his PASGT between them and consult to the 12x scope of his XMX DMR sustained with the still used Harris Bipod, "Ghost lead to Gavial 1-5 Actual, can you bring up the UAV to the village?", "Roger, stand by. We'll shoot it to the sky", the launcher were prepped to catapult the drone, a single press of button on the launcher has airborned the RC UAV directed to where the JSFs headed, "Here it is LT!", "Thank you, sarge!", the remote control were a converted kids toy with a screen showing feed from the thing it controls including its camera system, clearly visible about six mariners stopped a click ahead of Pepper and Li with guns pointed to the village and the open area and treelines after it, five soldiers going to inspect the village while the rest fifteen set up perimeter around the village overwatching the surrounding area. Faint jet engine rumbles were heard above them, it was the south korean KR-102 UCAS at altitude of 5.000 feet sent from Osan by the request from DASC, purchased by the south korean government a year earlier including secured rights to produce indigenously the Delphinus II by DaeWoo, "Partridge this is Barracuda 1-4 Bravo, we're beginning house call, over!", "1-5 Actual 10-4, noted!".

Two hours later

The twenty four marines were make it back in one peace, Gunners carrying GPMG and IAR has wasted good amount of ammo supplies used against the attackers temporary stronghold further northwest from the forward base, the commander both in Seoul and Misawa aware of it, ammo supplies will be arrived today, no known time but it would arrive before the sun is down.

The four ghosts were ended up in the just-deserted village not far from the stronghold, same village Mitchell protected his friend Captain Jeff Thomas during NATOs date with General Paik in 2007, an MV-25 were there as well transporting two ILBEs (Improved Load Bearing Equipment), one of the crew also handed four devices to each soldiers, the guy explained its the reversed engineered optical camouflage device usable continously up to five weeks, same not-so-serious drawback is it will deactivate when they shoot, move too fast or getting high impact but at least its still be reactivated and used normally and offering better power output, chance of detection were decreased 95 percent or 87 when moving, "Sweet!" Li smiled, "Well make good use of it then, its very very very highly expensive you know!", "Ahp...no need to tell that...it is EXPENSive!" She chuckled. The MV-25 left the area southward to Seoul back to base leaving the four men cell for an updated LRRP mission (Long range Reconnaissance patrol) on two outposts some twenty clicks southeast of Pyongyang, their objective is to observe and report, if update come in to blow up the places, laser with SOFLAM and wait for the bombs dropped from the sky before anybody could say 'be done with it', but if its to raid and rob instead, do it covertly, don't rush. Cedric and Ellison carried the packs while Li whose already bring up ten 40mm Airburst rounds for the M320 under Cedrics SpecterDR XMX take point, Pepper behind her walk second with Ferguson with her TA11 ACOG XMX and 30 still with the Mk.48 behind the three, "The R-102 confirmed you'll found nobody on your way to the target, limit time is four days, you should be able to reach it in three, take your time guys and gal", "Roger Flash, out" Cedric replied end.

East Miami

Approaching Kennedy Space Station

2.03pm

"This is Voodoo 3-3 to Space Center, approaching southwest at angles 7 by Mach 2, ETA 3 mikes" Bishop called up as he soar the cloudless blue afternoon skies of Florida in his XFA-36A, behind him were two special black and single white lined F-3C of the JASDF 108th Tactical Fighter Squadron known as Ridgebacks piloted by Major Kei Nagase and 1st Lieutenant Wataru Asano. "This is Kennedy Center, we have three bogeys from 090 approaching at high speed...unknown makes", un PID bandits, "This is Eagle Eye, confirmed three MiG-35 Fulcrums on angles 6 Mach 2, Crisis Center request nobody engage until engaged, additional F-22s and F-15s were on approach 4 mikes from Tyndall and Key West, maintain your course", "Voodoo 3-3 Copies". Bishop has internally four Sidewinder X-3s and six AMRAAMs with the two Shindens with eight of same combinations, ground threats were done by someone else from Hurlburt, the three planes were arrived to the launch pad, to the east were the three Black Super Fulcrums speeding to the three planes, "Heads up! Four more bandits inbound from 076 same airspeed", "Ridgeback 3-1 copies...HEY!", the three were attacked by the trespassers with their machine gun, they also aggressively passed the three in high speed nearly crashed Bishop, without thinking further "All aircraft, you're cleared to engage!".

The two JASDFs break formation to the target turning hard right towards the XFA flying idle in such slow airspeed that normal fighter jets would stalled down, the Fulcrums overshot him which quickly he full throttle his plane downward rightway chasing the diving russian birds, the superb acceleration has brought him to Gun range in nearly no time, Will easily aim the crosshair to the rear bandit and shoot for exact second to it tumbled two engines from its compartments nearly hit him and surprisingly the two Shindens behind him without he even notice, "This also for you, Major" Ridgeback 3-2 said as he launch a salvo of two AIM-9X-3s to the remaining bandits leveling up, one of it splashed the central fuselage which claimed the two occupants by intense heat spread to the cockpit, the other two exploded some inches of the last tail leaving black smokes from two engines, quite surprisingly the target plane still persistent on the fight but no chance as Nagase rained her machine gun some rounds to it and eventually chop off some control surfaces sending it down without any means of control, the two occupants too like the first one isn't ejected for some reason. "Another four bandits closing in from the east, Angles 6 in one mike", "Solid copy, Eagle eye!", Bishop doesn't feel right about it as he directed towards the said targets, something tells him there is more to it, blips shows four said target, that's the third wave and where is the second one he ask himself, "Ridgebacks, you see anything else above or below?", "Negative Voodoo 3-3, nothing...wait!" Kei stopped as she looked above, four black specks high above them going west and stopped there, the specks getting thinner and also bit larger, "Bandits above us, Break formation!" The three spread out, Will tilt up and going with the Sidewinder for a salvo of two, he can see clearly what he's going to deal with, four Su-50s diving in high speed to him with eight external weapons now locked to him, radar warning receiver confirmed a radar-seeking missiles now fired to him, he's getting closer to his target for a Sidewinder range, and closer, then he got his Lock tone, the rear central under bay door opened and launched the two to the front and rear planes before Will pulled the flight stick evading the western feared K-100 Novator that almost smashed the tail sting, he got the lucky streaks, two Su-50s tumbled down in uncontrollable barrel roll while the other two break formation after him, Will tilt his Hellcat to level upside down looking towards the two adversaries as well the six vs four fighting below, the added four were the Raptors and Eagles, he were Angles 13 when he looked to the Altimeter by the looking glass of his plane, again his plane were locked on by the two plus report of things getting excited "I read five more bogeys from the east, Su-35 on angles 7 Mach 2, got additional support for you from Langley, keep up the pressure, fend them off from the space center", "We're still on it, Eagle eye!" Mobius 1 replied.

A Fulcrum were destroyed right ahead of Alex by his own Sidewinder X-3, giving an uncontrollable fast barrel roll which dizzying the pilots inside the wreckage fallen to the blue ocean ahead of them, "Dammit, he's right on my Tail!", "Hold on Vanguard 17, I gotcha back!", Haruka somewhere chased another MiG-35 trying to get one EG Tailcoded F-15C, zigzag around five turns then barrel rolled leftside before make a sudden drop to Angles 3 to still no avail, she managed to stay with them, she got a lock with AMRAAM and fires to sudden two targets, another one also chased another Eagle about to pass head on, her initial prey were destroyed entirely with the second target got hit by the front gear housing which killing the occupants as they attempt to flee the kill angle, she and the Eagle she saved passed head on with other one, ight by the launch pad with the rocket assembly being halted by the attack and few engineers making desperate escape attempt, "Guess whose gonna treat some beers, Mobius 1", "Ah...Shut up, this isn't over yet!".

"Voodoo 3-3, Eagle eye, six combined Slamhounds and Su-50s closing in to your position", "This is Gyrfalcon 4-2 flight of four EA-16Fs from vector 340, we'll provide ESM support for ya". Without their knowing, the Air Defense System were rebooting after the failed hack attempt by an unknown hacker, still five minutes before the system completely running again, SAM Sites and mobile anti-air units were inoperable until then, radar detection were handed to the AWACS Eagle Eye circling around Hurlburt as well the XFA, the F-3s and Hunters and Harukas F-22A.

Bishop were now facing three Su-50s and three Su-38s at the same time, the later three were hot on his tail as he pulled non-special evasive maneuvers for now on, Jink right and turned left southward, all of them barely keep up with him, the other three Su-50s watched nearby their comrades about to slaughtered the experimental 6th Gen fighter aircraft, Bishop pulled 180 degrees Kulbit maneuver and fired the machine gun to anybody behind him tried with every control surfaces doable for that, braving the reddish world caused by the gravity effect caused the blood to drawn to his head and everything normalized for some split seconds before red out consumed half of his vision as he yawing left and right and left again firing the M61 Vulcan until the three Slamhounds overshot him, then he pulled the stick and leveling again to see world like he were used to be, as well as two standard Spetsnaz Guard Brigade fighters sprawled thick black smokes from both exhausts, the other one also emitting black smokes from both engines tilted up sky high, the red shade canopy assumed to have its occupant killed, explosions occurred behind him, as he look back he saw an F-3 destroyed three Russian stealth fighters, "Voodoo 3-3, you okay?" It was Kei behind him, behind her were a suddenly appeared flame sprawling Su-35 went sky high with another Shinden follows, Will were panted by the Over G he just pull rather than wasting his two Sidewinders too earlier, "I'm alright...give me time to orient myself for a second", "We're back behind you!" Wataru replied as he and his Wingleader formed behind him.

Far east on the Atlantic were a squadron of six Tu-22M Backfires inbound to the Kennedy escorted by six Su-35s.

"All callsigns be advise : additional targets inbound, flight of six Tu-22 Backfires inbound to the space center from the east with more six Su-35s angles 8, Voodoo 3-3, Ridgeback Flight intercept immediately!"

"Roger, Voodoo 3-3 going in!"

"3-1 Going for intercept!"

"3-2 Engaging!"

The XFA and two ASFs rushed straight to the directed target, the advanced radar on both carrier based planes allows to detect targets and automatically lock to whatever got Alpha priority, feature that still lacking on the standard F-22A or even the used to be PAK-FA and CFA-44. "Eagle eye here, be advised : still two half mikes for the air defense network to go online after being disrupted, do whatever it takes to stop the bombers", "Voodoo flight, this is Gyrfalcon 4-2, 4-3 and me going with ya to disrupt their electronics", the two Gyrfalcons left their formation above Jacksonville catching up Bishop and the Ridgebacks, "More allied units are on approach from the USS Essex positioned just two miles southwest of the target, ETA one mikes", "Copy!" Will replied plainly, one and half minutes before visual contact with the speeding escort fighters to his formation at angles 8, "We ridgebacks got the escort fighters, Voodoo 3-3 you can go straight to the bombers", "Copy, 3-1", all six AMRAAM missiles were readied including Nagase and Asano got their only four AIM-120Fs intended for the escorts, "This is Black Sheep 1-1 flight of three F-35s from the USS Essex, our controller confirmed five MiG-35s from the northeast, we'll get em!", they were right south of the bombers redirect northeast, The two F-3s climbed 500 feet higher and fired all their Long range missiles to the sprawling six escorts ahead also firing R-77s to the formation, two AAM-4s were hits, rest were trashed, Bishop dash through the Flankers to the bombers, the four bandits rushed to him ignoring the two japanese 5th gen fighters after them.

"Voodoo 3-3, have the visual!" Will note as he fired two AIM-120s to the lead bomber and other on portside behind with preset course so it would hit the cockpit, intake or wherever he intended without have to worry about the targets firing countermeasures, the missiles streaked the windshield of the two bombers exploding the cabin through the central fuselage where the weapons about to use against the Freedom star project stored, huge explosion that eventually consume nearly the entire fuselage of the two bombers, "Four more to go!" Will exclaimed as he passed head on at high speed and slowed down extensively before making tight diameter loop up back to the bomber with the remaining four AMRAAMs and two Sidewinders to go, "Lookout!" Kei called, ahead of him were an Su-35 rushed right to him, he reflexly fired his machine gun for some seconds and pitch up high while also resisting the short nerve clinch to keep him idle, he evaded not one but two Flankers trying to ram him, Kei fired her last Sidewinder X-3 to the last escort, the heatseeking missile dashed to the prey hitting the spine between the engine compartments and tumbled the plane to another dizzying spin up side down and side to side and so on, "Fox three!" Will calmly noted firing his four AMRAAMs each with preset course into the exhaust of the four bombers, the effect is not as great as his first kill, the targets simply losing all its power and eventually drop down to the warm sea below, "Voodoo 3-3 to Eagle eye, all six bombers were eliminated!" Will report as he back to the mainland with the regrouping Single line crafts, "Black sheep and Gyrfalcon flight, what's your status?", "Voodoo 3-3, Black sheep 1-3, one remaining bandits flee the area...SAR is on their way pick up 6-8", still there is no response from two Gyrfalcons on the sea, "This is Eagle eye, we lost Gyrfalcon flight, cause unknown!", "Damn!" Will nearly smashed the canopy, "The entire defense network is now online, all aircrafts return to barn, Voodoo 3-3, Ridgeback team, re-route to the USS James Lawrence northeast five mikes ETA", Bishop redirect from 270 to 045 with increased airspeed, still enough fuel to even make it back to Nellis. Kei on the exact portside of him could clearly see the angered american Ace, the motion of his body clearly he breathed struggling to reduce his temper, she too feel the hit, a hard hit, though not as hard as Haneda 2018.

Yesong River

Far southeast of Pyongyang

6.30pm

It was an absolute short time peace in most part of DPRK, the afternoon would turn to night in three hours from now, that without anymore gunfight or explosions hear. On the riverbank of Yesong, Li had wake up in time, netting covered her mattress so low under the grass nobody would notice things, her sensor shows nobody but other three that also wake up fresh stretching up, before move up they need to eat to keep their strength up for tonights march, soldiers are humans and humans are to eat to sustain their life and strength, got with them a simple plastic box, each contain two compartments for the simply made tomato and some chili mixed pasta and potato porridge, strapped with a small tape on the box cover were a spoon and smaller plastic bag of spinach and carrot, that's their current meal before they move up further north, if they were to drink the river were crystal clear by the rocky river height of ankle rather than the bottle they bring up if they're about to found no pure water, next nap time will be on three afternoon again in place safe like the currently trees and bushes covered opening by the calm river.

Somewhere further north were the abandoned command post supposedly used in case Pyongyang vanished, the same place also General mitchell hunt down Paik, shoot himself in the head leaving the ghosts to demo the ready to launch Taepodong ICBM, now this place is where additional intel regarding the Heavy Command Cruiser were kept according to an undercover mole based at Camp 15 Yodok, the laucnh pad were removed, instead its an empty spot used for helicopter landing, this is where two observation spots established by Ross, Kozak watching the used to be launch pad with a guard tower and Rebecca, Kim, with eyes on the complex before the pad where they saw soldiers offloading some boxes to a warehouse by the gate entrance, "What about the light from that tower?", "Not yet, Kozak!". Drones were flying above the pad area peeking the control room, there were an officer opening a red envelope.

Somewhere from Yesong were the FT Hunter on march by the treelines surrounded gravel road, the Cloacking device they now activate were rechargeable if the weather is cold if within use, hot and its no effect at all, this is really more expensive Matilda thought to her squadmates, "Meh..." James replied, "30 is Technophobia, Matt!" Pepper told her by 30's 'Meh', "Whose Matt?!", she confused until all of them looked to her, she giggled grin with that, "Fine!", that's all she just said, never yet to know why she called so. The temperature were cold enough for non-stop cloacking without have to worry about the decreased battery power, cold enough that the battery didn't decrease at all, this would help the quartet get faster than the given time table getting to their target area.

Rovaniemi Air Base, Finland

2.30am

"How was the preparation? Is all cross checked?"

"All were 100 %, General De Bankole!" The air force colonel nodded to the question.

Three aircrafts were taxi to the runway without ilumination, leaving the Hailstorm dominated ramp, three multi-wing model aircrafts with LFC (Laminar Flow Control) featuring L-shaped canards proturded upward and diagonal tailwings pointed down with an underbelly pod jutted forward like a spear storing the front landing gear, three X-103 HADes experimental aircrafts (High Angle of Attack Demonstrator - AC3 R-103 Delphinus III), R-102A drones donated from Rome and jointly revamped by Japan and Europe, its about to conduct another test sorties with other HADes crafts at the Alps Air Corridor as the front plane enters the airstrip with others standing by, the Afterburner light up the dark night from the Ishikawajima Engines refined collaborately with Eurojet, propelling the aircraft from full stop to over 160 knots speed in five and half seconds catapulting it to the sky.


	13. Stonehenge Offensive Part 1 Juggernaut

Gulf of Oman

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

December 13th, 2026, 10.24am

"The brits were here!"

"Riyadh?!" Ritsuko a bit surprised with what Lieutenant Olson just say, "Hell its just come in recently, just suddenly they said a squadron from Conningsby just landed in Riyadh by the request of the King", "What about the boys and girls from Davis Monthan?", "they were arrived at Dubai with a squadron from Lakenheath", the two made it out to the open air by the sea of Oman gulf, the exit take them to panels rightward to a stair led to the deck of Ike with two F/A-18F Block IV Hornets on Cat 1 and 2 with four HARMs, four Sidewinders and four AMRAAM missiles on the outer pylon and inside the EWP as briefed before, except for the Targeting Pod on the left intake pylon.

2 hours earlier

Inside the briefing cabin were herself, her WSO, and her wingman and his weapon officer as well, behind her were other thirteen special operators including Vatz and other his two Recon friends as well the ten combined GST, SAS, ODD unit pulled of from Yazd just last night.

"Our time is short, so I'll keep this brief!" La Pointe started

He were not those involved in the previous big war, in fact he were missing in the entire war, until the disappearance of Artemis, he was found held hostage alongside an unnamed US Senator within chechen region by the Swedish special forces, now he were aboard the american ship like nothing had happened.

"As you probably know, Bushehr were fallen to forces loyal to Abrahim Khazai, now he has control of Iran nearly wholly, Bandar abbas is where the remaining resistance held their foot...barely", the screen show up photos of the Stonehenge network including the giant artillery rounds sized nearly of the SS-1C IRBM, "The Stonehenge missile defense were delayed its operational schedule due to mechanical problems, but that sort problem is not be long, at least four days from now on it will test fire the first ever round, and that were all aimed southward to where we are now", The photos were switched to the southern part of Iran, revealing a shore town five clicks southeast of the Fallen Bushehr, "Our first step...is to seize the resistances air base, the planes were captured and kept there for use against the neighboring arab countries particularly Saudi, Bahrain, and Emirate. However, we cannot just send in bombers yet, the nearby onshore town where military members resides were fallen, now used as the defense zone with anti air weapons, its also a staging area for the forces in an operation to capture Abbas and the sea port, the occupants were fled outside, to even Pakistan. We're going to launch the Operation Juggernaut, Marines special operations capable unit Sea goblin will raid the town with the rest of the goblins from the light carrier USS Tartarus by Fastback APCs from Bandar Abbas, clear the entire area from enemy units, destroy every armored vehicles inside with the available air support asset. A Close air support will be provided by an attacker air wing from Davis Monthan which would arrive on 1030, Captain Ritsuko..."

The general looked to the only woman inside.

"I trust the anti air units to your hands, use wisely the AGM-88 HARMs to destroy all eight AA Artillery and guns in the town keep the A-10s safe, SAM would be no problem, Langley and Zurich were ensuring that radar system rendered inoperable", the photographed mission area reveal red zones with dots estimating enemy strength and weapons, "Once secured, a bomber squadron led by Colonel Rehl from Ellsworth will inbound for a precision bombing attack against the key targets, mission is success when the key targets destroyed. As for the ghosts, all will go again with the SAS and the Delta deeper to Esfahan, the iranian CFA-44 squadron from Tehran has forward deployed there monitoring the stonehenge and the target base so your mission is to sabotage the Fandances, minimal of five of eight Nosferatus before you can proceed to Abbas and return to Tartarus. Questions?", "What about the air superiority job over the AO?" Scott asked, "Dubai were on stand by with air superiority package of fighter squadron from Conningsby targeting hostile jets above the town, other from Bahrain will take care the bombers. Anymore?", Pointe looked around to find only clear pictured pilots and soldiers in front of him waiting to go outside for a call, "Finish it as fast as possible, no mistake, remember : four days from now on the turret network would operational...bon chances!"

5 minutes after

Large numbers of US Mariners were already feet dry in iran, they're now to secure the beachhead for the main forces landing attempt at their current AO tomorrow or next two, three M118 Fastbacks driving down the main road carrying twenty four XMX armed cell of joint Marine SOC Force Reconnaissance Battalions and the MARSOC, these twenty four were the large combination from the 2nd Recon Battalion with the 1st Recon Battalion which already one part of the Task Force Sea Goblin with the Marine Special Operation Regiment MSOT 3228, set on their right were low cliff accessible on foot which would provide distinct advantage on their assault, left were the dark blue sea of the persian gulf, "Aren't supposedly the other four 'Ghosts' with us today?" One of the Recon Goblin asked, "Who says anything about the Ghosts with us? The rest four should already somewhere inside sabotaging fighters for us anyway, don't worry" Vatz calmly answered as he keep eyes on touchscreen device on his hands scanning the surrounding, "Anything interesting guys?" He asked to his team, "No LT, no shit, nothing fishy!" Replied a Mariner sitting in front of a screen with hands on keyboard, eyes on the horizon of their surroundings by the turret camera of the front vehicle's Ma Deuce. The marines were 6 clicks away from the loyalists outpost taken over by the regime forces, said by Vatz as the residence of enemy size of Madison square, with tanks and technicals make up like car lot, "I hope they don't forget about the support stack for us or else its gonna be back to Alberta again. By the way, we're switching mission control, right?" Nathans 2IC, 2nd Lt. Tom Burton asked, "Already switched!" he assuring the 2IC. Not all of the twenty four Marine Commandos were armed with the Specter optic equipped XMX, he and his commander were included of those exceptions, Nathan has with him the M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle with 12x optic and Flash suppressor, bring up with him too the M4A1SOCOM with 4x32ECOS ACOG compensating his long range weapon, it has the handguard covering the whole 14.5 inch barrel but its muzzle compensator, his 2IC brought M240 fitted with M145 scope, other ten were bring up the same 240 and M40A5 with 18x optic.

Two strike packages were already taken from their CAS stack, coming from Dubai were a squadron of four A-10A Attack aircrafts flying at angles 3 above the sea, closing rapidly behind them were four Typhoons with eight missiles mixture of Sidewinder and AMRAAM bring up to escort the Thunderbolts, "Bulldog 3-3, this is Omega 1 flight of four Typhoons coming in fast from your six angles 5...we're going in first for sky sweep", "Solid copy Omega 1, thanks for that. Good luck", "You too!"

On the Nimitz class vessel far behind them were two CFT fitted Block IV Rhinos on Cat 2 and 1 ready to launch to SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) mission with the brits, "Victor 2, you won the jackpot. Go ahead begin your system checks, you got five. Victor 1, proceed for system checks, you're Line 2", Ritsuko pulled the flight stick up and down and side to side rhythmically, her WSO looked back to the stabs on main and tail wing were functioning properly including its vertical stabs for yaw, crews on deck checking behind lift their thumb up to him, "Stabs checks" he notified, looking to the panoramic touchscreen he confirm her "Landing wheels and brakes, control overrides, countermeasures and other systems including TPOD were green light, can go for weapons peek out", they touch virtual panels in the screen until show up in their visor listed armaments they carried, "You go first Olson!" She commed him to press the machine gun trigger on his flight stick, gun spun voice were heard by then plus a green square right of the list, the gun were stop to spun as Ritsuko too pressed the gun trigger on the flight stick which also appeared another green box right of it followed by Cross check logo replaced both boxes before back to just list of weapons, "Okay, gun is spun up nice and pretty. Go for the Sidewinders" she said, her WSO pressed the missile launch button, this time occurring four green dots from the listed AIM-9X-2 rightside which then swapped with the same box, and again before its cross checked and vanish from the visor, the next four HARM AGM-88Hs which all checks like the four Sidewinders, then the last weapon, the AMRAAM AIM-120E, same to the previous missiles with four again boxes, four Long range Air-Air missile and the four High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles were properly canted by the wing pylons and the Enclosed Weapon Pod, "Ike control, Victor 1, All cross-checked, good ends, no gusts. We request the go!" She contacted the controller, her wingman done the same "This is Victor 2, we're all set, ready for Cat 2", "Copy, Victor 2 go for go!". Her left hand pushed the Throttle lever to give engine output 100% full non-afterburner power, her right hand salute to the director before hold tightly to the panel on the canopy, same to her weapon officer whose held two hands to panels by the dashboard ready for launch. Steam come out from no. 2 shaken front gear, her wingman launched first to the sky leaving strafing steam along the catapult line, same thing to her plane, the two could feel the everyday violent shake and gravity push to their body to the seat before everything normalize when they left the deck, "Victor flight, proceed to your preset waypoint, change to angles 6 to your first point...maintain course, master arm is green light, switch to Tigertail fire control, how copy", "Victor 1, copy...Master arm on, ready for call through Tigertail". Her wingman formed portside behind her climb up through the small cloud layer at angles 4, they turned to the shore and stroll along it according to the preset steerpoint of two minutes silent journey which eventually were replaced "Sea Goblin to Tigertail, we're on scene, we're going for rock!", "Tigertail copies, air assets enroute", the two planes rushed forward along the shoreline, their job is to perform SEAD in and around the town, a mile before reaching the town they can see by the radar mix of bad and good guys on the ground, "Alright, handsome boy. Switch to TPOD, we gonna bust them from here" she commanded, "LAGM lock and loaded, on stand by for painting", Olson readied the targeting camera and tag his selected four targets so nobody firing the already attacked target, she climbed her plane 500 feet higher as her wingman break right away from her concentrating non-tagged target north side.

"Victor 1, this is Sea Goblin 1 Actual, we read multiple anti-air vehicles in the area, watch out!" Vatz reported while he scope the area with his M21 EMR, the shootouts were break opened already, the mariners spread around the entire east part of the town and some other by the high ground spotting targets for airstrikes, just then an anti aircraft artillery were smashed by an air attack, then the other one by the beach. Nathan and his spotter look off the scope and stare the sky to see two black shining specks floating high above them, "That's the Rhinos, continue spotting!" Nathan ordered which his friend direct him to another target on the open, he has a PKP machine gun readied to his men, the EMR spit one round that land on his chest push him backward, the mariners pushed the coup forces west, eastern tip of the town were swept clean with the help of the Fastbacks and Nathans sniping, "Victor 1 to Sea Goblin, we have multiple armored vehicles coming from west joining the party, have A-10s inbound for CAS" Ritsuko reported, "Tigertail this is Victor 1-3, AA guns were destroyed" Scott too reported to the E-2D circling around somewhere, the F/A-18Fs has precisely wasted eight HARMs to eight Artillery's and AA Guns placed on the mission area, the first inoperable enemy SAM were destroyed by Demo charge planted by the mariners, "Tigertail this is Bulldog 3-3, we're inbound for strikes" the lead A-10 pilot called up, "Roger 3-3, Destroy as many tanks as you can, the mariners will take care of the dead SAMs". Four Davis Monthan attackers passed by the town with gun blazing with the thundering roar, pop of explosions occurred inside the town as the targeted tanks destroyed by the gatling gun, above them were four british Typhoons going northwest, "Bogeys on my twelve, heading this way!" No. 2 (Omega 2) noted six MiG-29As from where they facing, three typhoons break away from their flight lead whose firing two Meteors to the incoming Fulcrums, the missiles peal the skies at extra Mach 2.5 by the Afterburner boost, the MiGs too break away from formation engaging the western delta fighters, two of them weren't able to react quickly, the Long-range missiles streaked through the radar nose to the chute compartment between the engines, "Boom! Sweet!" Omega 2 exclaimed with what his flight leader done, the remaining iranian fighters swarmed the europeans in attempt to retaliate the first bloods, "Omega 3, get outta there!" Omega no. 4 (Omega 11) warned no. 3, two Fulcrums got behind a Typhoon going after the lone iranian, the chase is short from the sea, turn to Abbas and then headed finally to Bushehr before the chased brits brake hard and barrel rolled rightside leaving the Chasers overshot it, two planes right on the nose with one of them precisely aligned for gun shots, and shooting the gun is what done, the early model Fulcrum were losing its power, fires coming out from the right exhaust as it fall down, other one were obliterated by the Sidewinder attack still from Omega 2 behind her as the chaser opened the gap, "Oi Makoto, you okay, lass?", "No scratch, lad!" The woman replied as she descend hard right catch up with other two brits trying to protect the A-10s below.

Meanwhile, the Sea Goblin team has destroyed the third dead SAM as they push west on clearing the neighborhood, Nathan were reached the rooftop of a three stories building where he used it as their next OP, other mariners with M40A5 were already fired up from positions on the cliff, up above them were Ritsuko and her wingman lasing armored vehicles for the Bulldogs to crush, "Bulldog flight, this is Sea Goblin 2 Actual, we were immobilized by a concentrated attacks on the central part of the AO, we couldn't move any further with that thing rock upon us". Olson looked to where the target reported, its a big fish market with full white tracers come out from the east part of the building, he switched to XAGM LDES mode, it were crosshaired to the building for about two seconds, "Bulldog 3-8, Fox Two!" A woman called up as one Warthog fired an AGM-65H to the marked building, the explosion were huge enough to incapacitated anyone and kill most inside and brought down the entire upper building, though gun fires were still occurred, the intensity were decreased considerably, "Light small arms fire from the designated building, thanks for the outstanding firework display, sir and madam!" Vatz gratitude before continue working up with his EMR.

The SOC Mariners pushed fast west, "Jeff, I want that Three-Twenty load up again" One of the marine recon called his men, the replies were he load a 40mm grenade round to the side loading tube of the XMX installed M320, "Lock and loaded Cee", then an explosion occurred around his location, followed by a passing by ground attack craft. Around twenty of thirty two armored vehicles of the iranian coup were destroyed either by the A-10s or SMAW attacks.

"Tigertail to all planes, more bandits from pop up seven miles Three Zero Zero angles 5, flight of seven Su-30s approaching on Mach 2".

The said planes were armed with twelve combination of R-73E Archers and R-27 Alamos, the later were armed against the western fighters circling above the town, "Got bloody spiked!"

"Ready the radar battery for electronic jamming mode, we gotta save the brits!" Commanded Ritsuko, her Rhino rotated from northeast to where the Flankers came from, "Radar will ruined like Melt Cheese" Olson warned, "Just do it!", by that he fried up the electronic disruption system to the approaching planes for some seconds, the Typhoons got no more warning alarm with that, the Jamming system that consume radar power has saved them from the barrage of long range attack, she stop the system immediately before her whole radar got melted. Ritsu joined the air battle with the typhoons against the Su-30s as it passed by head on with each other, she tilt up half loop and level back to see her prey turning back away from the ocean to the town, she tailing it until she were aligned right behind it, "Tally four on BVR...you know what I am asking", her WSO replied by taps on his flight stick. Her EWP were opened, revealing two AMRAAM missiles complete with two more by the folding wing area armed, "XMAA onto roll, skipper!" Her WSO noted and pressed the trigger by his flight stick, all four radar missiles blitzed to the skies above the northwestern city limit, "Bandits bearing 120...I'm sure its gonna be a hit", one Flanker pursued relentlessly a Delta wing aircraft which its makes its desperate attempt to shake off the pursuer, "This Bollocks were kept tailin' me, mate!" it wasn't all work for the female british flyer but then her chaser were strucked with missile attack behind her from right, another one somewhere around were smashed into the exhaust of the Flankers turbojet, the two seater aircraft were nothing but various sizes of chunks of wreckage, including the cockpit and the nose intact to each other rolling down in dizzying motion. "Omega 3 this is Victor 1, what's your status?" Ritsu asked, pretty soon the british air superiority fighter aircraft tilt 90 degrees right as it passed her and turn around close to the Rhino, "Feeling much better, lady! Thanks".

"Bulldog flight, Victor 1-3, how's the look below there?" Ritsukos wingman called up as he joined his wing leader, "This is 3-3, we got nine tanks to go, troops were on good go"

Vatz has joined the battle with the others, firing his AR-15 three shoot burst on his way pushing west, his spotter were catch up to him after rig a C4 to the SAM behind, the explosive destroyed the still used SA-13 by the engine compartment, its was useless forever. "This is Sea Goblin 1 Actual, we are pushing westward fast, we'll clear the AO sooner", "Tigertail copy, continue mission", "This is Sea Goblin 2 Actual, four men of mine secured three POWs".

Somewhere south of the town were an empty bar with four Mariners handcuff three iranian soldiers, half of the deployed mariners holding the east part of the city ensuring control over the area, once Vatz squad secured the western corridor they'll wait around until the bomber squadron finish their job.

Far southwest from Yemen were two B-1B Bombers flying Mach 1 on Angles 10, "Razor 1 to Yemen command, we're about to pass your airspace to Saudi Arab, how copy?" Janice called up the controller of the newly established air power of Yemen, now became another independent air units for its small country, "This is command, go ahead to your preset course, presence is expected, madam", the supersonic bombers accelerated to Mach 1.5 matching the scheduled time of arrival 15 clicks west of Dubai before directly headed to Bushehr.

"I got a tailer!"

"Roger, Dagger 3 copies, moving to attack!"

An Eagle shoot the gun, the bullets all flown into the engine bay, one Super Fulcrum were downed before it could fire a round to the single seater Block III Rhino it chased after.

The captured airfield, high above it were two Block III F/A-18Es and three Lakenheath F-15Cs dogfighting MiG-35s scrambled to the town, of the ten of it taken to the skies four were now the only left fighting the americans, the Air defense network were inoperable by the EA-18G circling south of the target base as well cyber attack, "Fox two!" One of the Super Hornet launched a Sidewinder that streak the sky to the unlucky flyer that about to pull up hard, the tail wings and stabilizers were gone and left the plane without elevator controller, the occupants ejected horizontally to the sea. "This is Taproom 2, I've been hit hard...I'm still flying", "You got smokes there, return to barn, that's an order!", the smoke sprawling Rhino turned right by the shore returning to Ike, through the shattered skies.

"Tigertail, this is Sea Goblin 3 Actual, we have recovered the british pilot...I'll take her east safe from the shooting", one of the Mariners returning east by the alley with the female pilot, he wondered himself why the hell we have a lot of asian female pilots here, indeed the pilot he go with were a brits with white skin oval head with small lips and mouth, plus slightly large doe eyes of (again for him) Japanese feature, her hair were shortened nearly to military standard with only flat side, odd style he thought, "Ah, sorry ma'am...may I know your name?" He asked as they jogged, "Wot, Its kiku! Why's that?", "Nah ma'am...aa...you look a lot like the my friend on the Press", "Oh, okay, lad!". Ahead of them were two MARSOCs watching their backs, another three were topside with the XMX DMR and the still used Barret M117 Heavy sniper rifle, "This is Sea Goblin 3 Alpha to 1 Actual, have eyes on high building with high concentration of fires, HE round is on standby, over?" The one wielding M117 called up, "Stand 2 Alpha, reposition to one story seven meters left from your view...you see them?", the M117 user align little south to see what he thought to be some kind of liquor by the ransacked trays and shelves with heavy small arms fire directed to the immobilized Nathan Vatz units, "I got em'", "Alright, wait until a Maverick blow up the building you saw first" Vatz replied from his position in a four story building with his 2IC again rocking up the GPMG for a short moment before hiding behind cover, an A-10 were about to fly by from north, the last Maverick were launched straight ahead and ascend some feet before dive hard to the big office building shatter everybody inside, at that same time the HE round in the M82A2 based rifle were fired to the second stronghold, the building were blasted, one soldier thrown out to the street from the HE 50. BMG.

"Go! Go! Go!", nothing left ahead of them but retreating iranians and around five surrendering upon them with their Kalashnikovs dropped to the ground and hands by their head, "Tigertail, this is Goblin, area is secured got four...no, five POWs!" Vatz called up looking six of his men cuffed the enemy soldiers.

On the Bushehr were two bombers dropping JDAMs to the control tower, hangar, taxiways and the runway preventing other aircrafts going up to the skies again, AA Guns and SAMs remain useless by the jammer aircrafts, Rehl and her wingman fly back south beginning their last bombing run to the barracks and some Anti-air systems before back to the state by Iraq and Israel, the escort fighters just circling around the base until the bombers left the base, "Razor 1 to Sky Eye, objective targets were destroyed, proceeding home!", "Solid copy, all callsigns above the target airfield, mission complete, return to barn!"

1.12pm

The combined contignent of the JSF expeditionary units and the combined taskforce of arabian army with the iranian resistance hitting the beach by the taken over town, large swarm of infantries were deployed by APCs inside the town from the LCACs along eight M5A2s and ten upgraded T-72s, the town were the first step for the long journey to Teheran. Before they could begin the march, they must wait for the treath from Stonehenge erased from their path, or else it will be a long unforgiving battle without air support.

Extra notes

\- Sea Goblin is originally a team of Osean Maritime Defense Force commandos in AC5, seems based on Force Recon. Their known missions was the rescue of POWs at Glubina Gulag during the snowstorm where Kei Nagase were shot down while she and her squadron protecting the rescue team, but also rescued the next day by them. Another one is during the joint operations inside belka to rescue the osean president Vincent Harling and taken him to the Nimitz Class OFS Kestrel, their last appearance was before the mission 'Heartbreak One', he went boarding an aircraft bound to the osean capital of Oured. (See additional detail at the Ace Combat Wikia)

Three soldiers I named based in the original game

\- Staff Sergeant Elliot Nixie

\- Sergeant Neil 'Dwarf' Wong

\- Sergeant Luke Harrison

In this fic, alternately they were joint Task Force of two USMC Commandos of MSOR (Marine Special Operation Regiment) and Force Recon operating at the middle east and Africa region, in some chapters ahead I'll change their deployment area, replaced by another Task Force called Grizzly, this one is from both real and ace combat strangereal version.

Strangereal Grizzly : Called 'Grizzly Battalion', they were a tank battalions of the Emmerian Army in the Ace Combat 6 Fires of Liberation, appeared in Silvat Siege on which the main protagonist team, Garuda Squadron, must protect them from the Estovakian forces surrounded them and other allied units from all directions. They would chase after the retreating enemy with the help of the air force, winning the war.

Real World Grizzly : Known by the Pentagon as TF Grizzly, the large joint forces of USMC deployed during the Iraq invasion on 2003, the main forces were MEU-SOC (Marine Expeditionary Units - Special Operations Capable) soldiers conducting various operations against key targets with the help of ACE (Air Combat Element) and GCE (Ground Combat Element). Their operating area were Middle east and Africa. The real TF Grizzly were appeared firstly in the Electronic Arts game Medal of Honor Warfighter.


	14. From Salt lake to Hac

Okay, not three, but four. :v

Let me know what's on your mind, readers! :)

* * *

Approaching Gulf of Oman

USS Bainbridge, Infirmary

December 14th, 2026, 10.24am

"How do you do now, Yoko?"

"I will be fine, ma'am!"

Amy Pitt, one of Foster's team member, stood in looking to a typical asian looking woman with curly blonde hair laid on the mattress, behind her were a clank of opened door hatch by three men that was previously monitored the blonde asian's extraction, "Foster!" Yoko looked behind Amy, it was David Foster with Alan and Wesley, the woman he look after were riddled with bruises and hit marks over her hands, face and her body wrapped in patients clothing, nevertheless, doctors confirmed her immense strength and willingness that she may combat capable sooner instead later, then again she's been working since 2024 non-stop on and off the field and she's getting captured instead taking her happy hour from her office, he's not concerning wether she keep herself unbreakable by her snatcher or not, she's good at that and aggressive when it comes to something only them should know, he just wouldn't let anybody to reunite Martha Yoko with two NSA agents Alice Madison and William Blaustein, both were reportedly dead on T'blisi during the georgian war in 2004. "I know you want an explanation of how come I'm suck at my job", "Well...they're good, no wonder you falling for them, the damn brass need to rethink with what they would do by this" the former 5th Special Force Group grumbled in slight frustration to whoever handled her back then as he rubbing his nose bone down to cover his mouth and chin with his hand, "Still remember on what's hit you last year?" Yoko dismissed her eyes from him for a moment recollecting the event at Utah.

Salt lake City, Utah

O'Hara Salt lake Mall

December 12th, 2025, 6.00pm

The particular day for stone exhibition on floor 3 with participants from thirteen countries mostly southeast and eastern asia, locals and tourist gathered there make up of more than 2.000 visitors in the temporarily used clothes outlet, polices patrolled the convention in and around taking chances of looking stones like Topaz, Onyx and more, attracting even chief of the local police.

Somewhere of the convention on different floor were a white suit black leather pants curly blonde woman carrying beige bag walking to a room in hallway rarely people crossed, inside were nothing but a table clean of stuffs, she put the bag there and grab a Tablet from it and a bundle of tissue wrapping an SD card which she put it, other thing she pull out from the bag were a transmitter of typical CIA/NSA specs which prevent interception from other transmission, plugged it to the USB port and quickly the tabled boot up a program that takes about one and half minute to complete. Then she has her tablet run a video call with a man around 48 with contact lenses, "Agent India!" He started, "Chief...I have with me the documents from Boise, five files" she fiddle her tablet to sending the intelligence she gathered, the total of 72.0MB file size were transferred in a minute dead, "Okay, good job...I'm worried things would escalate more here, especially on the south side", she aware of things happening since the nuclear attack on Saudi arabia which cripples world oil supply, then things escalated since the bombing at Haneda which also led to World War III, now with rebellions in central and south america on hot with US things would get complicated and more complicated for the White House,if its get worse while diplomatic relationship with EU still worn out it will led to another rebellion at El-Paso and Ciudad Juarez like the old days, "What should I do now, sir?", "For now on, Return to Langley for debrief, that means now. Good luck", with that the call is off, app shutting down back to normal app tiles, she unplug everything from the tablet and put all things to her bag and going out again. In case there were somebody looking for her the chance will low, the place she now strolled were far from the exhibition, but that doesn't mean things gone smoothly, especially with Megido, a secret entity that nearly killed president Patricia Caldwell on that night in 2010, in any case she need to change her attire sooner, and changing the attire is what she'll do next, firstly is to find clothes shop stock anything hooded, and new pants to further disguise herself.

Back to the crowds, instinct had taken over her legs rightway take her to stroll the second floor looking forward to the floor five of six which just right ahead of her on her left, there is closest outlet just right by the end of the alley she went by but the changing room were exposed to outside, the instinct and memory help her take to known outlet with the criteria she sought : sells hooded clothes, crowded and has the changing room hidden from outside regardless of price, one half minute of calm walks takes her to outlet named Rolling Thunder, typically casual clothes for youth, Rocker type youth, the owner blared the entire shop with a techno pop rock that although unfamiliar worldwide it does even catch interest to customers there, including Agent India herself. Somewhere on the sixth floor were a guy in sea blue squared T-shirt fiddling his smartphone, he sent an encrypted message read 'Target is entering a shop' before look back to where she gone into, few sweat shone his forehead, initially he thought she'd going for the exhibition but she never come there, she tricked them, nearly, both place is crowded that isn't really problem, problem now is the changing room, the place she pick is unexpected, no surveillance inside, yes they've confirmed she's going to a changing room with new clothes but the problem is nobody catch a glimpse what she bring inside, make it worse for them is she's not the only one gone there, there were other two peoples get there too, two women, visible with them were concealed new threads nobody able to catch glimpse on what they would wore, this will complicated he thought himself. Two minutes passed by, one by one the three women came out to the cashier, pay and leave, three women, hooded jacket, concealing their face going away to multiple directions, three women with all identical heights and posture, this screw him up, he sent message again, 'Follow the three girls, get ahead ID 'em", he put his smartphone to his chest pocket and gone off.

Outside the mall were a quite vast parking spots already filled with cars, two billboards were present on the main entrance from west advertising fashion brands, on the billboards were two guys prone with a suppressed SG550 sniper rifle aimed to the main entry, two sliding glass door slid opened three hours already by the sea of visitor come in and come out, "What's the situation, guys?" Asked other sniper on the south part by a the rooftop of an electronic market overwatch the left wing door with a 16.5in 416 fitted with silencer and 10x scope, "Still PID them, stand by". India in her new gray jacket has her way back to the second floor, on her way there she come to another fashion outlet with bags sold there, a typical expensive clothes and accessory for rich people or moneyed women, come across her mind to replace her bag she emptied and left in the changing room, and getting the bag is what she do next before made her way out, she got a strong feeling that if there were stalkers, they know she's avoiding their net, it take no time for her to get the bag suits both her style and function in accordance to her affiliation, a black bag enough for tablets and kits, its expensive but she has lot more than the price, combine her pays from langley and additional more every time she goes out for blending missions, easy for her, "Rock and roller with High end style, eh ma'am?!" The guy on the cashier teased her, "Uu...yeah, you know it, can't get older yet", with that done she come inside again looking for a bathroom putting all things she hid in her hooded jacket, something stopped her as she stood out from the room, the thing of the stalkers caught her in her current appearance couldn't be shaken, "Need more changes" she said herself, again still in the outlet she just find what she look for, a maroon red leather coat enough for cold air, today is cold on the city she's at now and getting the coat is again like a luck, both physical and mission, unfortunately, "Stop there!".

Darn! She thought herself, she can clearly feel it, something tube shaped touched her spine right when the man told her to stop, "Hey! You, red sweater! Put the Goddamn gun now!" Shout occurred from her right where a police officer caught what's happening with her, but the man in the said red sweater quickly duck down and shoot the suppressed P226 to the policeman, killed him and panic the whole outlet which starts loud and confusing screams of fear, she spin herself leftward and hit the man on his head with the bag, and kicked his chest and head until he's not move again, pick the suppressed pistol and shoot the radio on his chest pocket with velocity enough to break through the skin and plant the round in his lung, then she make up with the coat she sought as fast as she could while again trying to blend in with the scared visitors, but just as she grab the hanger, tracers nearly struck her from the main entry, they already anticipate the changes with the blazing MP7A1, she lay down in typical fashion like she got shot and aim the suppressed sidearm to the shooters and shoot some rounds to them, "Code 3! Code 3! Bad guys...shooting a woman...she's...a DEA or something like...tha...", she found the downed police officer, right behind the blood splattered cashier unable to finish his report, she notice the officer has on his hand the same P226 which as she inspect she found no bullets fired, she take it along with two more only mags on his waist, the shootout filled nearly the entire mall up to five with police officers overwhelmed with tactics and weapons like the 416s and AKs, the P226 were again used against incoming goons ahead with no chance of fighting in the midst of the chaotic sprawl, and more by the stairs.

Hurriedly she went there thought of jumping in midway down, cannot blend anymore, peoples were not crowded anymore so they can see clearly where she is, she jump off the ledge of the stair away from others still strolled there but again encounter another guy trying to catch her, he grabbed and brought her down trying to hold her there, fatally she shoot rounds to his stomach and chest and push him off just to have another one right in front of her pointing pistol to her, then some shots killed him, on her left were police officers killed the holder still had no idea what's going on, he can clearly see a pistol on her right hand, in fact he saw she killed what he thought an armed kidnapper, "Drop the gun down, lady!" He shout her, shout same phrase until she comply, she throw the gun ahead to him, if possible she'll knock him down and grab his pistol which again and luckily are the same 226, however he were gunned down by an assault rifle from the stairs she jump off, then a violent shock hit her, immobilize and sap her energy, the world seems to blur and tilt sideways 90 degrees, she could do nothing but groaned pain until its less violent, huffed exhaustion breath and violent surge on her body that subdued slowly, everything she saw were total blur, voices she heard were echoing, Crap she cursed before her visions went black totally.

January 8th, 2026

Foster were frustrated.

His hand hold the simple old school prepaid cell phone to his ear expecting someone to get his call, this been hours his associate didn't able get called, been four weeks didn't contact the former Ghost Recon, now all he got were another call missed, a mix of anger and worry, he looked to the cell phone in disbelieve before thrown it to whiteboard with photographs and notes before he grabbed his Satellite phone from his working desk containing a laptop, a tablet, UHF military radio and three LED computer with just one keyboard, its all placed inside the 8x8 room with wooden floor with just him there.

"Its been hours Yoko didn't answer my calls and FOUR WEEKS the chumps at the Pentagon didn't update me on her, SO..." He sighed after some of his a bit heighten and emotional tone as he take a seat, "Alright, speak up, Lambert..." He said as he take and sip the coffee in the mug with Airborne logo emblazoned, "Well, our recent raid back at La Paz has confirmed lots of it, I mean LOTS of it. The local cartel working with certain colombian group had ties with european Mafia syndicate, but its lot broader than we thought and they didn't even knowing it! Uuhh...", Lambert were skimming through the laptop before he continued, "They seems payed by whoever these loose cannons are to set up things, like they spreading...what they called it, influences? I mean...they seems got agenda already running since we even took out Treskayev four years ago, russian weapons were delivered by black market to latina, middle east, eastern europe, china and north korea, they planned war", "Yeah I know already they want war. How about Yoko? What's up with her? And is there something about to happened? How powerless we are to anticipate it?" The former Ghost demanded, "We interogated Miguel, the mexican cartel leader, Dunways team also asked the colombian contact nearby Caracas but...they were stupid and uneducated that they didn't even know if there were another Russian Coup D'etat foiled, only another small time and vague contact at middle east and eastern europe..which I'm sure its the DGSEs turf", "Shit!" Foster cursed, "No, No! wait...let me finish. The Laptop and the Blackberry is two underground bank vaults full of cash, golds and bearer bonds, contents of both items were varying of payment accounts and video taped things of many bad guys, one of it were...you won't gonna believe this!" Lambert chuckled, "Believe in what?" Foster asked, no answer.

Instead, a video tape sent to him from Lambert showing two men walking on woods talking business, "I hand her to you. I want you to hand her over to Khaleed, payment would come when she get to him. His location is same as yesterday we met Kilik" said a latin accented men to a person Foster and Lambert knows, the former Italian COMSUBIN, Giorgio Zott, the video were blank, end. "So the rumors were true, heh? After he retire due to the incident at Kandahar, which were similar case to Douglas Shetland", David sighed recalling the outcome of what's happened, he left his career, family and country and found himself being a gun runner with base at Bosnia, "Yeah, we also checked other stuffs here and we found list of contacts he closes with at Manila, Bangkok, Yemen, Somalia and Baku. I'd say we talk to him first and sort out things about her and others bfore we would work out for her. You know he met Yoko at Helmand nine years ago", another memory of him and Yoko when they were part of Army ISA (Intelligence Support Activity) working outdoor alongside the Italian SEAL in hunting down Al-Qaeda lieutenants tied with NRF, "Oh...nearly forgot. If we're to get to him, he's at Hac but not for long, we can grab him within a week with the help of a Russian forces. An Alpha Group under the command of Major General Alexei Tatarev", Great he thought, ita not on bad terms. Its thought to be impossible for him how an american fighter sided up with russian, especially meddling things of moscow matters, Foster sipped his coffe again before he continued, "Alright, I'm gonna shut things down first, then we'll be going vacation there, oorah?", "Hooyah!" Lamber replied lastly and end the call.

Hac, Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina

April 6th, 2026, 1.24pm

It was empty, nobody crisscrossed the road, no cars pass by, just littered town with debris, some fires and damaged buildings with bullet marks around it, this place is clearly used to be a hotspot during Kosovo things in 2002, and the memory is still there by the marks. "Torrie?" One guy called David by the window overlooking an abandoned square between the United Nation Plaza and Technology office of Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina, the guy called him having red beret, beige jacket strapped with russian Tactical Vest and Partisan pants, on his back were an AK-12 with Gp-25, with him were two former SEAL Team 6 Alan Dunway and Wesley Lambert in rather trendy casual clothing strapped with Black Army SPCS, they got SCAR-L and Pecheneg PKP on their hands, "General Tatarev..." Foster come to him shaken his hand, "So you've been briefed, sir?" Foster started, "I've even collected additional intel about it, says your girlfriend were also MIA in your very country, how that happened is I don't know, they not taken her to Sarajevo, its a ruse but my team got an intel of the man who knows where she is, he is also our primary objective hiding in the mall", "Okay, sir, we start now?", "Of course, amerikanski. Let's get started!".

With Foster and his other three friends were Major General Alexei Tatarev, he lead seven Gruppa Alfa operators which with him made up Task Force Zenith, comprised of multiple elite special operators formerly loyal to Ravens Rock now fighting for their new president Nikanor, they work in conjunction with Spetsnaz Guard Brigade conventional special units to maintain operational of russian Tier 1 units even during todays repeated events in 2008, civil war nearly across the russian federation, their president is some said were ousted, others said he's dead somewhere, either of that has led to the new regime to take over the Kremlin, rumors seeped out from the russian agencies that the current ruler would mastermind global events which would eventually cripple the United States of America as well the European Federation. "Torrie, I will be taking care of objective Alpha and Charlie, you can handle Bravo, right?" Alexei noted to the former Ghost, "No problem at all, sir! Wesley you go with Pitt right side, weapons hot!" Foster ordered as his hand held the V-grip and scan the UN plaza square with the MARSOC issued rifle, split away with Dunway from lambert with behind him Amy Pitt with slim handguard G3A3 equipped with 6x ACOG+RDS, she and the blonde Ex-Team 6 disperse away to the part of the square to the office, pops were heard ahead followed by inches away tracers around them.

Serbs rebels going out to fend off the joint american-russian forces,

"Tangos all over the square!" Pitt said as she fired her marksman rifle to enemies over one of the four crossing bridges, Wesley get behind a dusty never been used Photobox as the cover with her hitting the concrete below the bench setting down the Harris bipod picking up slacks, Lambert kneeled one leg sustaining the russian light machine gun, firing rapid pops that muting other sounds around, so loud anybody inside the plaza and the office building could heard it like a fireworks, Foster and Dunway pushed forward onto stands to get closer to the enemy,"Frag out!" The auburn OGA noted as he thrown an M67 to the fighters concentrated around a large pond with a large female priest statue, the cokedgrenade were exploded just before it impact the ground around the enemy fighters, it killed three men and pushed them to their cover messing their stature, one has his arm laid exposed to the two SAD men, the blast isn't enough to rupture the beautifully carved concrete pond of the ancient time, "Wesley, we got the square, you take care positions from above, copy?" Ordered Foster, the two were simply nod, going upstairs through the office court with some serbs fighters on the way to confront the russian Alfa Group, three enemy fighters by the bridge were gunned down by P90 of Amy and Glock 18 of Lambert, Dunway shooting some rounds occasionally to another insurgents from the hotel that part of the Plaza, "Zenith 1, we're pinned down by enemy fires from the hotel, do we have indirect support, over!" Foster asked still calm but his voice clear amidst the tracers and bullet impacts around, "Have your target, hang in there!" Replied Tatarev, soon there's white tracers on the sky coming down as its about to smash the earth, and it did.

Major General Tatarev just survived the large attacks of the Kosovo fighters, their bodies laid over the two way rounding stairways, trembled as the effect of the artillery rounds on the square to the hotel fired from the KV-20 mobile artillery gun of the Spetsnaz Guard Brigade, about ten seconds later became quiet again, silence in where he and his three men stood by and raging noises outside, his AK-12 were emitting a fog from the muzzle, he was just come out from a lacquer store on the second floor, the content of the shop were dusty and completely ransacked of long untreated added with gunshots, across the lacquer were a shop for sports equipments and accessories as there were some ski boards, soccer balls and some tennis rackets shattered in combat, there were faint footsteps inside, "Surrender on the spot, Now!" One of the Zenith operative shouted, his Kalashnikov along with others were pointed inside, Tatarev already switched to the PP-2000 letting the AK barrel cool down for a while. "Sir?" One of them looked to their team commandef, he swung his hand to have them back off, another 40mm HE grenade round into the underbarrel grenade launcher, it fired into the ransacked racks, heavy puff of dust from the greased wall and floor by the blast, the wooden cashier desk heavily damaged and tumbled, splats of blood over the shop. AK were fired again inside, a plain clothes fighter were dropped down, fingers twitched the trigger of the old AK-47 as it pointed to the floor, "This is Zenith 5, Contact! Main objective!".

The double door were exploded, five kosovo rebels stormed inside the laboratory of the Bosnian tech office, placed with plastic covered computers and machineries where the spetsnaz forces come out fast from the cover and rain the raiders with bullets, ridden the enemies with holes and bath them in the dark red fluids from their body, two of them evaded the bullets sprung from three special force troops but the couple were gunned down by one trooper just by the corner to their right, add another horrific grim already litered some parts of the lab, "Clear!" One of the Alfa man shouted, The second team leader pressed the microphone by the throath, "Area cleared, continuing after the target, relay, over!", "Zenith 1 prepared for the first wave of incoming enemy fighters", "This is Torrie, its a bit awful!"

A hard to get MD500 armed with panels carrying four NRF spetsnaz men giving hard time to Pitt and Wesley took cover by a garden between the crossover bridge, Foster and Dunway sit behind the fountain before the onslaught of the enemy, the shooter onboard fired from the AK-12 attached M320 an Airburst round to wires sustaining the southwestern bridge to the plaza front area, another round were blasted the bridge to the plaza and hotel, the blonde man and the redhead were just laid behind cover by the violent quakes on where they are, cracks were heard from the blast, and sonner instead later, the bridge were tilted down, "Holy...!" Amy gasped as she slid down, her hand grabbed Wesley's hang over by the torn ceramic bench, "Hang on!" He shouted, a faint pop were heard from the plaza which then the light helicopter were exploded fully, leaving the mostly intanct tail section flown to the plaza courtyard, the body itself were scattered around the destroyed bridge. On the plaza were a sniper with KSVK chambering the russian built 12mm explosive sniper round that destroyed the Chopper by the engine bay. "Alright, before we slide our way down to your position, skipper...requesting equipments check" Wesley pant, his hand still grabbed to the bench and the other grabbed the redhead OGA, "All good! Come here!". With that he release her as she slid to the rubble and guard the surrounding waiting for the blonde brooklyn to come down to her.

Four GRU commandos in the office come up from spiraling stairs led to a double-door, stack up around prepared for breach entry, the man on the rightside to the door pat his helmet twice, another behind him come up to the door putting a white plastic bag with an electronic control device, all four stay back a meter, the detonator were readied by the one setting the charge, he heards serbian chatters inside. "What's happened? Why's so quiet? Are they dead?", the man pressed the button on the detonator, explosion left a big hole to the forced opened door, around seven fighters were inside the storage, they were shocked, panic, they covered their ears and crouched, one of them were Zott, a man in old jungle clothes holding an AUG with Swavorski scope, the GRU men stormed in, time felt flow slower, their vision is narrower, their adrenaline were heightened as they move in and aim the muzzle to closest targets first before engaging the furthest, three men left cornered, Zott's henchmen gaining orientation but were killed before had a chance to shot their Kalashnikov, one round thrown away Zott's bullpup, a Saiga 12 were readied by the team leader, he aim the shotgun to their target and pull the trigger sending an electric slug to the italian with violent surge that he were powerless to rise up, two of them guard the door with other two restrain their objective. "This is Zenith 5, objective secured, repeat : objective secured! Over!"

One serbian peek out the garden overlooking the square from the mall, a bullet sprint through his head with a splash of blood flown all over his surrounding as he dropped down hitting the shoulder first to the floor. The GRU men with Tatarev holding back their position from the Mujahedeens siege, a blast killed two fighters attempted to go to the garden, Tatarev switched back to his SMG firing from his position under the escalator, his weapon klicked empty, he took cover right in time bullets nearly sprayed him, loud and ear pearcing noise of bullets passed by hitting the supersonic barrier. He load a fresh stick to his PP-2K and resort back to his AK-12 and went to the other side of his cover and fired to the enemies, other three were on the upper floor, another grenade round hit the wall above the window where the enemy stormed in, killing the last three, Alexei's men fired few more rounds outside, "That is all of them!". Alexei sighed, he come out from his safe spot and walk to the foot of the dead escalator stairs, his hand pressed the microphone to his throat, "This is Zenith 1, all clrear, how was Bravo?"

Wesley insert a fresh wooden box to the scavenged AK-47 and yanked the charging handle, his hands gripped the wooden trigger handle and the wooden heatshield parts, the wooden buttstock were pushed gently to his shoulder with the muzzle pointed away from other men, "Torrie here, we're clear, Zenith 5 got the objective, over?", "That's acknowledge, we'll regrouping outside with the HVT. Out!". From afar were two Mi-55s approaching the square, flying 300 feet on airspeed around 160 knots, "Zenith 1, this is Salamander 1, do you copy? Over!" The lead armored attack/transport helicopter, "This is Zenith 1, infra red strobe is activated!" Tatatrev replied already regrouped with his other squad members guarding the perimeter as well with the four CIAs, the Ex-5th SFG held a device on his hand, a black tube that looks like it was nothing, the helicopters approached, from the IRST shows a glowing glint, his hand is the source of the glint, "I got your position! We're beginning touchdown!" Replied the pilot as he slows down the approach and descend steadily.

Mt. Misiovich

Leaving Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina

6 Minutes later

Foster and his team were inside the trail aircraft, with Major and the former italian commando unconscious, the man were to be interogated back at the hide out, the interogator not from russia, an outsider. "I nearly forgot..." Foster looked to the Major, "What is it, sir?", Alexei lift his hand up before he conveyed, "Our interogator too can collaborate more with what we just got now!"

Somewhere in the Baltic

8.16pm

Zott were tied to the chair in the dark room, a pitch dark in the night by the shattered room in a flooded house in the middle of swamp, there was no light inside but the italian were kept blindfolded. He wasn't alone, not with Torrie and Tatarev, but with General La Pointe just fresh from Paris attending business with President Perreau and De Bankole, he was claded in armor, protective panels on hands and legs, standard Kommando electronic equipments, and a night vision goggles like the other two. Outside the house were nothing but thick fog, no winds, just voices of small scale wildlifes all over the area, giving aura of horror for unexperienced adventurer.

"Well...how's it going?" Torrie started

"...Who are you?!" The captive demanded

"I'm Wo Pai Ling...and I'm here to talk with you" he replied softly, he squat in front of him with a file, "Says you were involved in an incident over the Kandahar on 2018, it wasn't your fault. Says here also you were...uu...the brightest in the military but...according to investigation on 2023, you were confronted by a far higher ranked officer and he along with some others blamed you and took you down from the military. A car bomb at Albania were occured two years later and toll about twelve lifes and more than sixty injured, which said it claims your life and...", "What do you want, american?" He demanded, torrie done reading, closed the file and looked to Giorgio, "You're going to tell me anything about Who you work with" La Pointe asked calm, he just shook his head, "Stupid! We're just buying and selling weapons! Businessmen!" Replied stern, "You know nothing do ya? You work with someone who might kill you and..." "I suppose you Yankees would just bash your satellites to your favourite locations and conclude yourself, I'm not gonna talk to you!" The captive argued with Torrie, "You were about to kill your old friend!" Pierre reminded softly but audible enough from downstairs guarded by Amy sitting by the chair with rifle jutted out through the hole of the house, "Who's that?" He scowled, "Remember Staff Sergeant Yoko Martha?" Pierre reminded.

Not again he muttered, he would openly and insistedly for himself reject the close connection with her but now he couldn't hide it "What did I do to her?" He now asked calmly full of concern, "Well, you just sold her to...whoever this Khaleed Guy". The former italian SEAL sighed, he inwardly cursed himself of how stupid he was, "I think I can help you untangle some strings...just you helped us save her for another of your friend" Foster referring to himself said it with false tone of his own, the italian sighed lacking what he know, "There's lots of things happened here and there, too fast, I can't catch up with things happening every now and then!", "What, you would help south american countries come up under one banner?" The general Pierre asked soft, the italian were just silent with that.


End file.
